Welcome to ODHA!
We are the professional organization for Dental Hygienists in the State of Oregon — a constituent of the American Dental Hygienists' Association. Our state leaders and local components across the state, work together to represent all hygienists in Oregon.
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COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement for
Health Care Workers in Oregon
The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) has adopted a temporary rule that requires all health care workers in Oregon to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19.
The OHA adopted this temporary rule to help to prevent and slow the spread of COVID-19, and has stated that “it is vital to this state that health care providers and health care staff be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to protect themselves, their patients and statewide hospital capacity.”
This temporary rule will be administered and enforced by the OHA. For additional details about the vaccination requirements and exemptions, please review the full text of the OHA rule, OAR 333-019-1010, and OHA’s Letter to Interested Parties. Questions should be directed to the OHA at [email protected].
The American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA) advocates the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) guidelines for preventing the transmission of infectious diseases. The CDC recommends that all healthcare personnel receive the COVID-19 vaccine. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/hcp.html.
The ODHA understands that this has been a very challenging time to be a dental hygienist. Many of you faced long periods of unemployment due to dental offices being closed. Those of you who returned to work needed to adjust to new, more stringent infection control protocols. And now you are required to have a vaccine to prevent and slow the spread of COVID-19.
The ODHA believes that most dental hygienists have already been vaccinated for COVID-19. However, we do know that vaccine requirements for health care workers may create a conflict between their individual right to autonomy & privacy, and their professional responsibility to protect their patients from the spread of infectious diseases.
As a constituent of the ADHA, the ODHA supports the OHA temporary rule because it is based on the CDC guidelines for protecting our patients, providers & staff members from disease transmission.
See more updates on COVID-19 here.
Thank you to our Annual ODHA Partnership sponsors!
