Ohio nursing homes, despite low vaccination rate, comply with mandate

On Mar 15, 2022

A booster shot sits ready at a county health department in Ohio. Vaccination rates for nursing homes in the state rank near the bottom of the nation.

March 15 is the federal government’s final deadline for all Ohio nursing home staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. And Ohio is doing just fine, said the head of the state’s largest long-term care association.

“They’re in pretty decent shape as far as compliance,” said Pete Van Runkle, who oversees the Ohio Health Care Association. “I would call it a tragedy averted.”

After fears a vaccine mandate would exacerbate staffing shortages at many nursing facilities, it may not be the case.

That may seem a surprise to many, given Ohio ranks near the bottom in the nation for vaccination rate of workers. At the end of February, with 88% of facilities reporting, only three-quarters of the workforce was fully vaccinated, according to federal data. Only Oklahoma fared worse.

It’s unclear why the Ohio is lagging behind. The Akron Beacon Journal reported that 45% of Ohio facilities stalled in vaccine uptake during January.

Nursing home comparison:How do Ohio homes compare with facilities in other states?

Robert Applebaum, director of Miami University’s Ohio Long-Term Care Research Project, said it’s important to keep in mind that Ohio has the sixth largest population ages 65 and older.

Almost all nursing home employees who remain unvaccinated have taken advantage of religious exemptions, Van Runkle said. He estimates roughly 20,000 to 25,000 workers in the state are exempt, while 70,000 to 75,000 have gotten vaccinated.

The religious exemption was built into President Joe Biden’s administration’s mandate, following federal law protecting “sincerely held” religious beliefs. Whether an exemption request is valid seems to be loosely enforced, as federal guidance recommends taking the request in good faith unless there’s an “objective basis” to question it.

“That gave them an escape hatch, where [staff] didn’t have to either get vaccinated or get out,” Van Runkle said.

For safety advocates, that could undercut Biden’s goal of increasing nursing home residents’ safety through vaccinations. Despite efforts from facilities and the state government to encourage inoculations, advocates have worried they haven’t been enough.

“Residents are not getting as sick and we’re not seeing as many deaths, gratefully, because many people have been vaccinated,” said Erin Pettigrew, the deputy state long-term care ombudsman, during COVID-19’s omicron wave.

There are still a few employees on the fence between vaccinating and getting an exemption, and not all nursing homes are in the clear. Even then, enforcement of the mandate is not immediate and may be waived if there’s a good-faith effort, said Van Runkle.