Flu shot requirement won't apply to nurses

Friday, January 6, 2006

Flu shot requirement won't apply to nurses
Judge rules against Virginia Mason

By ANGELA GALLOWAY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A federal judge has upheld a decision that Virginia Mason Medical Center may not force its nurses to be vaccinated against the flu. But the mandate stands for the rest of its staff, hospital officials said.

Last fall, Virginia Mason told employees that they must be vaccinated by Jan. 1, except for about 700 nurses whose union had previously filed a grievance over the policy.

As of this week, about 96 percent of workers, including the nurses, have complied, said Dr. Bob Rakita, chief of infectious disease.

(Note: Rakita's name was misspelled in the original version of this article.)

"We've been doing tremendously well," Rakita said of the nation's first such hospitalwide mandate.

Virginia Mason employs about 5,000 at its 336-bed Seattle hospital and a network of Western Washington clinics, according to the company.

Rakita said he didn't know how many workers had refused. Some were fired or quit.

The company exempted about 1 percent of the overall staff for religious or medical reasons, said Virginia Mason spokeswoman Kim Davis.

Originally, the company had planned to require universal vaccinations by this time last year. But the mandate was postponed because of last year's shortage of flu shots.

In the meantime, the Washington State Nurses Association filed a grievance, and the two sides agreed to negotiate through an arbitrator, Eduardo Escamilla.

Last summer, the arbitrator ruled that the policy violated Virginia Mason's contractual obligation to negotiate with the union. The company appealed in U.S. District Court, claiming Escamilla had overstepped his authority, violated public policy and ignored the language of the contract.

On Thursday, Judge Marsha Pechman upheld the arbitrator's decision.

"We're ecstatic," said Anne Tan Piazza, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Nurses Association. "WSNA and Washington nurses absolutely understand and support flu vaccinations and encourages everyone ... to receive them.

"But it needs to be an individual decision," she said. "Not a condition of employment."

P-I reporter Angela Galloway can be reached at 206-448-8333 or angelagalloway@seattlepi.com.

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