A nurse at St. Clare's Denville Hospital is taking a stand for her own and her colleagues' religious freedoms in a proposed class-action lawsuit taking aim at the health care provider's stance on vaccination exemptions.
Alexandra Clark, in a lawsuit filed in state Superior Court in Morris County on Oct. 18, says the health care system emailed employees in September that they were "no[t] accepting religious exemptions this year" for the influenza vaccine — a stark reversal from granting such accommodations in prior years.
Health care workers in hospitals, nursing homes and home health agencies are required under New Jersey law to get a seasonal flu vaccination. Clark said that when St. Clare's required the immunization in 2023, the hospital granted her a religious exemption after she explained that her Catholic beliefs prohibit her from receiving immunization, telling her employer it was her duty to "honor and care for the body God has given me."
St. Clare's accommodated Clark's religious beliefs and made no additional conditions on her employment, including no added face masking, testing or workplace limitations, the filing says.
A spokesperson for St. Clare's said the hospital places the "utmost importance" on staff and patient safety but declined to say whether the health care system is not accepting religious exemptions for immunizations this year or whether the policy at the hospital has changed.
"Vaccine requirements and regulations follow a complex set of federal, state and county guidelines," the spokesperson told the Daily Record. "Saint Clare’s Health has always and will continue to follow state and federal requirements."
Clark filed the lawsuit as a class action, asking a judge to allow other employees of St. Clare's to join in one legal filing. The filing says it is believed that "hundreds" of employees have been subjected to discrimination. St. Clare's declined to provide the number of employees who requested exemptions or to respond to the allegations in the lawsuit.
"As this is an active legal matter, there is no further information to provide at this time," the spokesperson said.
Clark is seeking unspecified compensation for emotional distress, including embarrassment, humiliation, indignity and other mental anguish, with the filing saying she must either "violate her sincerely held religious beliefs or lose her job."
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Clark, of the Glenwood community in Vernon Township, has been employed as a behavioral health nurse at the Morris County for-profit hospital since 2023. She says the hospital has violated her rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and the state constitution.
The lawsuit details St. Clare's alleged religious persecution, or the systemic mistreatment or oppression of a group or individual based on their religious beliefs or lack thereof, saying, "Religious discrimination in employment is not only illegal, but it is so far beyond what should be tolerated in our modern society."
Many health care providers have offered flu shots to their employees for years, and employees have been encouraged to get the vaccine. Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation in January 2020 to mandate that all health care workers get the vaccine, with only those who have a "valid medical reason" exempt. The statute is mum on religious exemptions, although it gives hospitals the opportunity to "adopt additional policies and procedures."
Public health advocates argue that vaccines are one of the most effective ways to stop the spread of disease, protecting individuals and their families and friends, and, for health care workers, their patients. In the 2019-20 flu season, vaccine prevented an estimated 7 million influenza illnesses, 3 million flu-related medical visits, 100,000 flu-related hospitalizations and 7,000 flu-related deaths, according to the latest data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
During the 2022-23 flu season, nearly 80% of health care workers received the flu vaccine, according to data from the CDC. About 95% of doctors received the flu vaccine, with 86% of workers in hospital settings covered by the vaccine. The lowest number of unvaccinated health care workers were in long-term care facilities and home health care settings, the CDC said.
Clark's lawsuit says St. Clare's, under the state Law Against Discrimination, "must" make a bona fide effort to provide an employee with reasonable accommodation for the mandatory vaccine policy. Clark also cites a paragraph in the state constitution that says, in part, that "no person shall be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshipping Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience."
St. Clare's is a member of Prime Healthcare, a hospital system based in California with 46 acute-care hospitals. Among them are St. Clare's Denville and Dover hospitals, St. Clare's Behavioral Health services in several Morris County locations, imagining centers and primary care physicians.
The $62 million sale of St. Clare's Health to Prime Healthcare took place in the summer of 2014.
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