Rally planned against vaccine requirement
An anti-vaccine mandate rally is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday outside Kootenai Health at U.S. 95 and Ironwood Drive.
It is being billed as the "United We Stand Medical Freedom Rally" in opposition to Kootenai Health's requirement that its employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Kootenai Health initially said its employees had to be vaccinated by Dec. 6 “to ensure we are fully compliant with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) interim final rule, requiring COVID-19 vaccination for health care workers in hospitals.”
A successful suit challenging the federal mandate was led on behalf of multiple states by Louisiana. U.S. Judge Terry Doughty granted the states’ request for a preliminary injunction. Idaho was part of that suit.
That ultimately led KH to delay the vaccine requirement.
“Due to the uncertainty the court order has created, we adjusted the compliance date to Dec. 13,” said a statement from Kootenai Health on Friday.
Some are upset with the vaccine requirement. The release says the hospital has hundreds of openings and will lose more people because of it.
A previous statement from Kootenai Health said its leaders have been in frequent communication with employees and physicians “to make sure everyone is aware of the new requirement and understands what they need to do to be in compliance."
It said there are many ways for employees to comply with the final rule by Dec. 13, including vaccination, religious exemption or medical exemption.
Kootenai Health last week declined to tell The Press how many employees have been vaccinated or how many are seeking exemptions.
Jon Ness, CEO of Kootenai Health, and Rick Rasmussen, CEO of Northwest Specialty Hospital, addressed the issue in a column published in The Press.
In part, they wrote: “Choosing not to comply with this new vaccination rule, and forgoing payment for half of our patients, would effectively mean the closure of our local hospitals. Clearly, that is not a path for which anyone would advocate."