How to Develop a Mandatory Vaccination Policy: Organizational Ethics in Action
Channel: HMS Center for Bioethics
Date: 2022-03-21

The development of safe, effective COVID vaccines has been a game-changer in the pandemic, but despite widespread availability, progress in getting the US population fully vaccinated has been slow. Vaccine mandates increasingly appear to be one of the most effective ways to increase vaccination rates and protect people. Yet efforts to mandate vaccines have been met with pushback and legal challenges, leaving organizational leaders to navigate murky waters when establishing vaccination policies for their employees.
 
This month's Organizational Ethics Consortium will explore the pioneering vaccination policies developed by Houston Methodist, which in June 2021 became the first health care system in the United States to mandate the initial series of COVID-19 vaccination for its 30,000+ employees and physician affiliates, and in 2022 again led the nation in mandating booster vaccination in the wake of the Omicron variant.
 
We will welcome Susan M. Miller, MD, MPH, a key architect of Houston Methodist's vaccination policy, to take us through the ethics process underlying this mandate, its implementation, and lessons learned. She will be joined in conversation by two distinguished bioethics and health care leaders, Elliott Crigger, Ph.D., Director of Ethics Policy at the American Medical Association, and Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, MD, JD, Director of the Master of Bioethics Degree Program at Harvard Medical School and President-Elect of the American Psychiatric Association. 
 
Houston Methodist's experience has lessons for other health care systems and organizational leaders that extend well beyond the current moment. 

Presenter:
Susan M. Miller, MD, MPH

Discussants:
Elliott Crigger, PhD
Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, MD, JD

Moderator:
Kelsey Berry, PhD

This session is part of the Organizational Ethics Consortia. Learn more about the series at https://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/events/weekly-consortia/organizational-ethics-consortia