Oct. 9 Daily News editorial

The great majority of nurses and other health-care professionals are on the same page as the Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA) when it comes to the advisability of getting vaccinated against seasonal and swine flu, no doubt. They’d advocate for the vaccines. The vaccines are safe and effective. Getting vaccinated is a smart preventive move, particularly with the outbreak this year of the highly contagious H1N1 strain of flu.

Where the WSHA and nurses part company is on the wisdom of forcing health-care workers to get flu shots. The hospital association favors mandatory flu shots; the nurses aggressively oppose the mandate. We’re on the side of Washington nurses, and we’re encouraged to read that the state’s top health official also opposes mandatory flu shots for health-care workers.

The WSHA has been considering a recommendation urging the State Department of Health to issue a flu vaccination mandate for hospital employees statewide. Health Secretary Mary Selecky opposes such a mandate, according to Seattle Times health reporter Kyung M. Song. Song reported this week that Donn Moyer, a spokesman for the department, said vaccinations should remain voluntary. Ordering flu shots means “a government agency would require a private person to undergo a medical procedure, in many cases against their will, in order to be able to work,” Moyer told Song. “We don’t think that’s appropriate.”

Neither do we. For that reason, we were pleased to learn that Seattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center shelved its plans to require its nurses to get flu shots — at least for now. The medical center rolled out its vaccination mandate in late September. Shortly afterward, the Washington State Nurses Association filed a lawsuit in federal court against MultiCare Health System, which operates Virginia Mason and three other hospitals, seeking an injunction against the mandate.

Nursing News reports that it was a shortage of flu vaccine, rather than the filing of a lawsuit, that caused Virginia Mason to back off the policy. The medical center and nurses association have faced off in court over the issue of mandatory flu shots once before. The nurses association took Virginia Mason to court in 2004, when the hospital ordered all its employees to get a flu shot or risk termination. The U.S. District Court in Seattle ruled in favor of the nurses association, blocking the mandate.

With similar vaccination mandates being implemented at Tacoma General and Good Samaritan Hospital, the association’s lawsuit remains active. It’s significant to note, however, that the nurses association remains a strong advocate of the flu vaccines. It Anne Tan Piazza, assistant executive director of governmental affairs for the association, told Song that the union recommends that all of its members get vaccinated against seasonal flu and swine flu this fall. But the association opposes hospital mandates forcing workers to get flu shots, as do we.

Correction (published 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9)

Friday’s editorial opposing hospital-mandated flu shots for nurses contained several errors concerning Seattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center and its flu-shot policy. The hospital is not affiliated with MultiCare Health System, which has been sued this fall by the Washington State Nurses Association over the flu-shot policies at Puget Sound-area hospitals it oversees. Virginia Mason was sued much earlier by the WSNA over a flu-shot policy it implemented in 2004. The courts ruled that it could not mandate shots for members of the nurses union, because the hospital had not negotiated the requirement as part of the union contract. This fall, Virginia Mason announced an extension of its policy, adding the 2009 H1NI vaccination. Moreover, the hospital did not recently “shelve” that flu-shot policy due to a vaccine shortage, as the editorial stated. The hospital, instead, allowed that members of the nurses union weren’t being required to get the flu shots, because of the earlier court decisions. However, union nurses who refuse to get the seasonal and swine flu shots are required by Virginia Mason to wear masks until the end of flu season.