PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Maine’s largest healthcare system is going to make COVID-19 vaccinations a requirement for employment, officials said Tuesday.
MaineHealth, parent of Maine Medical Center, becomes the largest health care provider to require all workers to be vaccinated, joining dozens of hospitals and health systems across the country.
Dr. Dora-Anne Mills, chief health improvement officer of MaineHealth, said it’s “paramount that all care team members be vaccinated.”
“The vaccines are very effective, and are preventing hospitalizations and health complications with COVID-19. In addition, the vaccines are proven safe — we have a full year of data from the clinical trials and almost 200 million Americans have received a COVID-19 vaccination,” she said.
MaineHealth becomes the first system with a hard deadline for staffers to be vaccinated. The new policy goes into effect on Oct. 1, healthcare officials said. Nearly 84% of workers had been vaccinated as of late last month.
The announcement came a day after another large healthcare network, Northern Light Health, announced that staff must be vaccinated against COVID-19 once the vaccines are fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Last week, Millinocket Regional Hospital became the first to announce a vaccination requirement. It’s requiring staff to be fully vaccinated with either Pfizer or Moderna vaccines within six weeks of final FDA approval.
