CAMC set to fire employees who do not get seasonal flu vaccine by end of Friday

January 6, 2010
CAMC set to fire employees who do not get seasonal flu vaccine by end of Friday
Charleston Area Medical Center employees who do not get the seasonal flu vaccine by the end of the day Friday are going to lose their jobs.
By Kathryn Gregory
Staff writer
Advertiser

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Charleston Area Medical Center employees who do not get the seasonal flu vaccine by the end of the day Friday are going to lose their jobs.


"The vaccine is a condition of employment" and people who do not get the vaccine will be fired, CAMC spokesman Dale Witte said.


Anyone who is not vaccinated by the end of the day Friday will not be allowed to work, Witte said.


"If they are scheduled to work, they will be taken off the schedule until the [human resources] folks and others go over the list to make sure it's accurate," he said. "Then it will be termination."


A CAMC employee e-mailed the Gazette to say, "it looks like the decision to let 80 employees go because they refuse to take the vaccine is actually going to take place." The employee asked not to be identified.


Witte would not confirm the number of employees, but said it was a "handful of people," out of the more than 6,000 people that work for CAMC. He would not say which departments would be affected.


In August, CAMC required all employees to get the seasonal flu vaccine, and said those who did not by Dec. 15 would be fired.


The deadline was moved to Jan. 8 after supplies of the seasonal flu vaccine were delayed while mass shipments of the H1N1, or swine flu, vaccine were coming into the state. CAMC is not requiring employees to get the H1N1 vaccine.


Witte said the hospital is standing by its decision to let people go if they don't get the vaccine.


"We don't feel it's putting them out. It's just the best thing for patients and themselves," he said.


In years past, CAMC has encouraged people to get the flu shot, which has always been offered free to employees.