News

Contact: Mary Roberts

North Platte, Neb., January 27, 2022 – At Great Plains Health, we live by our mission: “To inspire health and healing by putting patients first – always.”

With the Supreme Court reinstating the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, Great Plains Health is proceeding with the requirements laid by the federal government. We cannot risk hindering our ability to serve our community and provide care to patients under the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

These regulations were first released on Nov. 4, 2021. Due to concerns with staffing in the healthcare field, Great Plains Health provided testimony in a legal suit filed by multiple states in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court issued an injunction, or halt, against the CMS regulations and sent the case to the Supreme Court, which delivered its ultimate ruling in favor of the regulations by a 5-4 decision on Jan. 13.

According to the CMS rule, staff and vendors now need to receive the first dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine or a one-dose COVID-19 vaccine by Feb. 14. Staff and vendors must be fully vaccinated and receive their second dose of a two-dose vaccine by March 14. Staff and vendors also have the option to submit a religious or medical exemption. These regulations apply to Great Plains Health, as well as any institution in the United States that receives Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements.

We are proud that the majority of our team members are already vaccinated. Over 89 percent of Great Plains Health staff are compliant with the regulations and have either received the vaccine or filed an exemption.

“As a healthcare team, we have seen firsthand how the vaccine has helped protect patients from hospitalization, serious illness and death. We have a team of medical experts, including an infectious disease specialist, with decades of experience in medicine, and everything that we are learning indicates that the vaccine is safe and the best way to mitigate the virus,” Ivan Mitchell, chief executive officer, said.

“Since these regulations were first released in November, we have been communicating with our staff and vendors about what this means for us,” Mitchell added. “We’ve been offering COVID vaccine clinics for staff and hosted open forums where staff could ask a medical expert questions about the virus and vaccine. We are adhering to these federal regulations because it is required to serve our local Medicare and Medicaid patients, but we also recognize that, as healthcare staff, workplace vaccine requirements – and the science behind vaccines – are nothing new. Implementing these regulations is tough to navigate in some ways, but our commitment to putting patients first is unwavering.”

###

About Great Plains Health

Based in North Platte, Nebraska, Great Plains Health is a fully accredited, 116-bed acute-care regional medical center serving western and central Nebraska, northern Kansas and southern South Dakota. With 90 physicians representing nearly 30 medical specialties, the Great Plains Health system offers advanced health care, including heart and vascular, cancer, and orthopedic surgery services. Great Plains Health is a Level III trauma center, and all of its emergency department physicians are residency-trained and board-certified in emergency medicine. The system employs approximately 1,200 employees and serves a geographic area spanning approximately 16,000 square miles.

The hospital is accredited by the Center for Improvement in Healthcare Quality (CIHQ) and is home to an American College of Surgeons-accredited cancer center and Level II bariatric surgery program. For more information, visit gphealth.org.