One of Houston’s largest hospitals is offering a $ 500 bonus to employees who receive a vaccine for COVID-19.
Bonus notification occurs at a time when health systems across the country report difficulties in convincing healthcare professionals to get vaccinated before their patients.
ABC News reported that Houston Methodist is among several health systems in the United States that offer financial incentives to encourage employees to get vaccinated to reduce the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks at the facility. The bonus, considered a “hope bonus” by the company’s CEO, was revealed to the team in early January in a letter obtained by ABC.
“This bonus is a thank you for your perseverance throughout a difficult 2020, as well as something to look forward to, providing hope, during the coming challenging months,” wrote CEO Marc Boom. “The eligibility criteria will include the vaccination COVID-19, fulfilling our obligation as health professionals to lead the community.”
A county-run nursing home in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, is offering a similar program, according to ABC: nursing home employees will receive $ 750 to be vaccinated.
Some health professionals have resisted taking a vaccine that is considered in some places to be insufficiently tested. A survey of nearly 6,000 Jackson Health System employees in Miami, Florida, obtained by The New York Times, indicated that hundreds had no plans or desire to receive the vaccine. Thousands of employees at a Michigan company that runs six hospitals in the state said the same.
“What we were hearing when we started preparing our employees for vaccines was that there was going to be a lot of resistance to being vaccinated,” Northampton County executive Lamont McClure told ABC News.
A CDC tracker indicated on Thursday afternoon that just over 10.2 million Americans received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, with 29 million doses in total distributed.
Some health systems have taken the opposite approach to ensure that employees are vaccinated. Atria Senior Living and Juniper Communities, two networks of nursing homes, told the Times that their employees would be fired if they did not get vaccinated.
“For us, this was not a difficult decision,” Juniper CEO Lynne Katzmann told the Times. “Our goal is to do everything possible to protect our residents and members of our team and their families.”