NY health care workers must get their Covid-19 booster by Feb. 21. Some hospitals have catching up to do

Getting there will take a lot of work.

State Health Department data shows that, as of Tuesday, just three of every 10 hospital workers in the five-county Western New York region had received booster shots and documented it with their employer. That was only slightly higher statewide, at 35%.

But health care officials say the reality is that many more workers already have received their boosters. It's why employers, such as Buffalo's Catholic Health System and Erie County Medical Center, are now busy collecting and validating the booster statuses of all workers, helping to determine which staff members still need an additional dose.

"We are actually now seeking information from staff who may have received their booster shot off campus, so that we get a more accurate picture on that overall percentage," said Peter Cutler, spokesperson for ECMC, which reported in state records that 37% of its employees were boosted as of Tuesday.

"In the meantime, as we have been doing since the boosters first became available, we're urging staff to get boosted," he added.

Of course, another major factor is that not every employee is eligible quite yet for a booster, particularly those who didn't get their primary vaccine series until the fall. 

For employees not yet up for a booster — federal guidance recommends the extra dose five months after getting the second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine — the state Health Department said they will have to receive the booster within 30 days of becoming eligible. Like the state's vaccine mandate in the fall, a medical exemption is allowed.

Unlike the state's Sept. 27 deadline for health care workers to get vaccinated, health care officials have said they don't anticipate big problems in getting staff to comply and receive the booster, which is 90% effective at preventing hospitalization from the highly contagious Omicron variant, according to the latest CDC data. 

"We believe that every health care worker should be vaccinated and should be boosted," said Debbie Hayes, area director for the Communications Workers of America. "And our members see the result of what happens when you're not vaccinated in the hospitals every day, since more than likely those are the patients that are coming in."

Ahead of the game

As of Tuesday, 65% of Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center's employees had received a booster dose, the eighth-highest percentage among the state's roughly 200 hospitals.

"We just feel that one more person that we get vaccinated is one step closer to getting through this pandemic," said Michelle Lewis, the medical center's director of pharmacy.

Lewis and her team have run the medical center's vaccination clinics for employees and the public since Dec. 18, 2020 — yes, she remembers the day, thinking back to a time last January when there were lines of people and not enough vaccine supply.

While demand is no longer that high, Lewis believes the medical center has been successful in getting employees vaccinated and boosted by providing convenient access and using resources on education.

For example, she said, the medical center has between two and five clinics a week in the hospital's auditorium area, where employees can get their booster dose when eligible. Those also are open for community members, and Lewis said the hospital is "seeing a fairly decent number" just now coming in for their initial vaccine dose.

Lewis also used about 10 inpatient pharmacy staff members to go to patient care areas and talk to front-line staff. That proved successful and, following talks with hospital administration, Lewis was able to hire five more part-time pharmacists to assist in vaccination efforts. 

Her team has went into various areas within the hospital, doing one-on-one counseling with employees who have questions. 

In the run-up to the state's initial vaccine mandate deadline of Sept. 27, Lewis recalls spending a lot of time in August and September reviewing information and alleviating concerns of employees who still needed to be vaccinated.

"Truthfully, I can't go anywhere in the hospital without being asked about vaccines," Lewis said. "No matter where I am, in the hallway, emails. We are a smaller community hospital, so our staff really kind of knows everybody. So there's always someone that they can turn to and really ask questions and kind of ease those fears."

With many employees opting to get boosted within the hospital's walls, that's also made it easier for Niagara Falls Memorial to track who already received the additional dose and enter it directly into the medical record. 

Catching up

In the state's data, 18 hospitals reported that fewer than 10% of their employees had received a booster dose as of Tuesday.

That included all of Catholic Health System's hospitals. 

In reality, those figures are much higher, with the low percentages more reflective of just how much booster information needs to be collected from employees in the next few weeks.

In a statement Thursday, Catholic Health said it is actively gathering and validating booster information for its nearly 9,000-member workforce in preparation of the deadline next month.

The health system, so far, has confirmed 20% of its employees have received boosters.

"We expect a high percentage of our associates have already been boosted and anticipate this percentage to increase significantly as we continue to collect this information," the statement read.