Legal experts: Florida employers can require employees to get vaccinated

| 3/16/2021

Legal experts: Florida employers can require employees to get vaccinated

With more people able to get COVID-19 vaccines and businesses taking steps to bring operations back to normal, can an employer require workers to get vaccinated? And what happens if an employee refuses? The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidance saying that generally, yes, "employers can mandate a COVID-19 vaccine as long as they comply with all federal EEO laws." [Source: WTVT]

Florida patients of color face barriers to transplants. Is there a simple fix?

At 3 a.m., Imeria Price and Jordan Washington got up to take their 8-year-old son to the emergency room. Jakobe had fallen ill earlier that day at a baseball tournament in Georgia, so they returned to Punta Gorda. From the hospital, a helicopter flew Jakobe to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, a 25-minute ride. His parents trailed behind, a 2-hour car journey ahead of them, unsure what would come next.[Source: Tampa Bay Times]

AdventHealth announces details for new Riverview hospital

Leaders for AdventHealth West Florida Division have announced plans to build a 209,000 square foot, four-story hospital in Riverview, Florida. The health care system will break ground on the $216 million project beginning Fall 2021 and plans to open the hospital Spring 2023. [Source: AdventHealth]

About 1.8 million Florida seniors are still not vaccinated

Three months after Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that seniors were his top priority in the coronavirus vaccine rollout, about 1.8 million of the state’s residents 65 and older still hadn’t been vaccinated as of Monday. DeSantis is expanding vaccination eligibility next week to anyone 60 or older, adding another 1.4 million people to those vying with seniors for the often hard-to-get vaccine appointments. Health care workers, people of any age with underlying conditions and firefighters, teachers and law enforcement officers 50 and older also are eligible. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

As COVID-19 spreads fast in Florida prisons, no vaccines have been given to its inmates

Three months into Florida’s vaccination efforts, Gov. Ron DeSantis has yet to make vaccines available to state prisons, even as corrections officials have requested doses and identified thousands of elderly inmates who meet the state’s eligibility requirements. Inmates who meet the state’s age group criteria could be waiting for the foreseeable future. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Baptist Health South Florida launches health tech innovation fellowship [Becker's Health IT]
Miami-based Baptist Health South Florida is starting a new healthcare technology innovation fellowship to foster development of new products and interventions in healthcare

› Florida’s COVID variants soar as spring breakers arrive [Orlando Sentinel]
As travelers flock to the Sunshine State for spring break, Florida is reporting a soaring number of COVID-19 mutations, far higher than anywhere else in the nation, raising concern that college students and Daytona Bike Week crowds will bring home the more contagious strains to their communities.

› Jupiter Medical Center hosts hiring event for healthcare workers [WPEC]
Jupiter Medical Center is hosting a hiring event for healthcare workers. The event is Thursday at the PGA Urgent Care center.

› Florida’s homebound residents have more shots on the way [Tampa Bay Times]
The state has vaccinated more than 1,500 homebound seniors and residents and plans to grow that number as supply increases.

Tags: Health Care eNews

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