As of March 27, an estimated 91% of nursing home staff nationwide have received the required Covid-19 doses, 56% have received a booster dose and only 6% were granted a religious exemption in response to the health care worker vaccine mandate that went into effect earlier this year.

That’s according to the Office of Inspector General which recently did its own audit on nursing home staff vaccination compliance following the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ mandated requirement. 

From March 28 through April 22, the agency reviewed the documentation to determine whether staff members had received the required vaccine doses, had received a booster dose or had requested and had been granted an exemption from receiving the vaccine.

The numbers show a slight increase compared to the numbers posted on the CMS website, last updated on June 12, which shows 87% of staff have been vaccinated with 53% of vaccinated staff having received the booster. The data for the number of workers that received a religious exemption have not been posted.

OIG conducted the audit to provide an independent analysis of nursing home staff members’ Covid-19 vaccination status which it hopes provides CMS and other policymakers with a snapshot of the nursing home vaccination compliance at a specific point in time.

As of March 27, nursing home residents had accounted for more than one million confirmed Covid-19 cases and approximately 152,000 Covid-19-related deaths in the United States, while staffers accounted for approximately 1.1 million confirmed cases and approximately 2,400 deaths.

The agency used a sample of 100 of the 15,244 nursing homes nationwide to come up with the data, using a list of staff members who were subject to the vaccination requirements and randomly selected 10 at each facility. For the 1,000 sampled staff members, their vaccination status was reviewed and tabulated.

Of the 1,000 staffers sampled, 884 had received the required vaccine doses while 78 had been granted an exemption based on a sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance.

Staff who received the required vaccine doses, a booster dose and staff who were granted a religious exemption tended to vary depending on location.

In fact, in 10 distinct regions across the country, the percentage of nursing home staff who received the required vaccine ranged from 70% to 99% with the region that includes Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio showing the lowest rates and the northeast showing the highest rates.

The region that included California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii was also shown to have high rates at 97%.

Similarly, booster shot compliance varied among the regions with the Pacific northwest region that includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska at just 30% while the California-Nevada-Arizona-Hawaii region reached 84%.

In eight of the 10 regions, the percentage of nursing home staff who were granted a religious exemption was below 10% with the region that included Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri showing the highest percentage at 24%.

While the OIG typically includes recommendations in its reports, the audit served simply as a snapshot of the Covid-19 vaccination status of nursing home staff nationwide.