COVID-19 News for Employees

The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a bivalent version of the COVID-19 vaccine booster. Bivalent vaccines contain two mRNA components that will help generate an immune response to both the original strain of Sars-CoV-2, the COVID-19 virus, as well as the two omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2 (BA.4 and BA.5) that are more common today.

PRE-PROCEDURAL TESTING FOR SARS-CoV-2 INFECTION: Pre-procedural testing is required for patients undergoing general anesthesia, regional anesthesia (not a field block) as a primary anesthetic [as airway manipulation would be needed in the event of block failure] or other procedures as approved by the VUMC COVID-19 Command Center. Pre-procedural testing is specifically not required for the following:

VUMC leaders continue to track key metrics such as transmission rates for COVID-19 in the community and county statistics for those who are vaccinated while keeping abreast of evolving practices for infection prevention and changing federal and state requirements for compliance with workplace safety standards.

Considering the rapidly increasing rate of COVID-19 infections in our community and medical center, VUMC is reimplementing required masking in all indoor, non-clinical areas of VUMC regardless of vaccination status. As before, masking is also required in all clinical areas and on shuttles. These requirements apply to all employees, patients, trainees, and visitors.

Based on updated CDC COVID-19 booster guidelines and VUMC’s review of the evidence, VUMC will offer a second booster of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to eligible individuals, ages 50 and over, who received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

In this video message, Dr. Jeff Balser addresses the recent conviction of a former nurse, VUMC’s culture of safety, and offers the latest on COVID’s impact on the medical center. Read the transcript.

Dr. Jeff Balser, president and CEO of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, outlines recent changes to COVID-19 guidelines that affect all VUMC employees, along with steps being taken to increase staffing.  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released new guidelines for measuring and categorizing COVID-19 risk in communities across the United States. These new guidelines take into account hospitalizations for COVID-19, new cases of COVID-19 and overall availability of hospital beds. Counties in Middle Tennessee are now classified as low or medium risk for COVID-19.

Currently, we have not changed limitations on meetings and gatherings: everyone must stay masked, and there should be no eating during the meeting. We're closely tracking the following metrics of COVID-19 spread in the community, which the CDC uses to measure rate of transmission in a community:

Effective Feb. 14, VUMC will consolidate locations where COVID-19 vaccines are available. This change will lessen the significant administrative burden of COVID-19 vaccine oversight required at each location while still providing easy COVID-19 vaccine availability at central VUMC locations. COVID-19 vaccination is available in many locations throughout our community as well.