No vaccine, no job - no argument

Allege whatever you wish against Kootenai Health, but don't accuse the people who run our community hospital of being stupid.

That seems to be what's happening, though. A handful of employees who refuse to get a flu vaccine, as well as their supporters, are condemning the hospital for its policy of requiring all workers to get a flu shot. No shot, no job, the hospital has decreed.

While the controversy over effectiveness of influenza vaccines continues - it's likely to end about the time everyone belongs to one political party - the real issue here is the hospital's responsibilities. And responsibility No. 1 is to keep its doors open, every minute of every day of every year, to absolutely guarantee that residents who are sick or injured will receive quality medical attention.

That's the mission, and you can even invoke moral arguments if you wish, as some have. We brought up the matter of intelligence, and since it has been disregarded in arguments thus far, we'll address it now.

Kootenai Health administrators will tell you that when it comes to investment, having the very best equipment in a state-of-the-art facility is critical. That's part of the reason the hospital is now in the midst of a massive capital improvement project. But without highly trained, experienced employees, from the most specialized doctors to the folks who scrape food off the cafeteria plates, Kootenai Health is in big trouble. Forget its ranking as the state's top hospital; without a superior workforce, Kootenai Health couldn't keep its doors open. There's just too much competition for patients on the other side of the state line.

Why, then, do smart folks in the hospital's administrative offices want to lose experienced, proven employees? Answer: They don't. Replacing them means expensive recruiting, training and retention. From a moral and mission perspective, firing employees who refuse to get vaccines makes all kinds of sense. But in the real world of managing a business, even a huge nonprofit business like a 2,300-employee, community-owned hospital, it makes no sense at all.

This really is about taking care of patients to the best of one's ability.

If that's part of a conspiracy, Kootenai Health officials should be able to sleep well at night. More importantly, so should their patients.