More Philadelphia-area health systems requiring employees to get flu shots

Greg Poland, a Mayo Clinic infectious-disease specialist who has been campaigning for mandatory flu shots for health workers for years, said the shots were "unquestionably a patient-safety issue." He said he thinks health institutions have been unduly fearful of employee reaction. He finds it "remarkable" that "entities entrusted with and privileged to care for the public health are not doing something that the data show is beneficial to the health and welfare of patients because of fear of employee pushback."

Studies show that employee vaccination prevents transmission of disease to patients and reduces overall patient death rates, according to the SHEA position statement.

Neil Fishman, director of health-care epidemiology and infection prevention for Penn's health system and president of SHEA, said Penn could not get voluntary vaccination rates above 55 percent. In 2007, he said, 15 nurses and several physicians who worked in an intensive-care unit got the flu. They did not give it to patients, but the potential was there.

Penn bioethicist Arthur Caplan says there is no ethical reason not to require employee vaccinations. When workers ask, "Don't I have any rights?" he answers that patient rights trump those of employees. Codes of ethics for health workers typically require them to put the interests of patients above their own and to protect the vulnerable and the weak. Plus, he said, "you have a duty to do no harm."

Contact staff writer Stacey Burling at 215-854-4944 or sburling@phillynews.com.