Maine high court rules EMS had authority to require COVID-19 vaccine for healthcare workers
Michele Catinella, a Nurse Practitioner at the John Knox Village Continuing Care Retirement Community receives a Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine from Carmen Pi, a Registered Nurse with American Medical Response on December 16, 2020 in Pompano Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court confirmed that Maine Emergency Medical Services had the authority to require workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and influenza.
The rule was challenged by a group of more than 100 plaintiffs led by Chris Calnan, who claimed Maine EMS was acting outside of its authority.
In a decision issued Thursday, the state’s highest court found that the Maine EMS board followed the appropriate rulemaking process regarding the required immunizations and that it was in line with the purpose of the Maine Emergency Medical Services Act of 1982, which is “to ensure optimum patient care and the safe handling and transportation of patients.” This affirmed a lower court decision from the Kennebec County Superior Court.
In August 2021, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services announced an emergency rule that healthcare workers — including EMS workers — must be vaccinated against COVID-19 by October of that year. The Maine EMS board eventually declared its own nonemergency vaccine requirement effective August 2022.
A few months later, in December 2022, Calnan filed the complaint.
At the start of 2024, the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for healthcare workers was lifted after DHHS and Maine EMS proposed the rule change.
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