Mount Carmel requiring all employees to get COVID vaccine or face discipline, including possible firing
Mount Carmel Health will require all of its nearly 12,000 employees, clinical staff and volunteers to get vaccinated for COVID-19, becoming the first hospital system in the Columbus area to do so.
Employees who refuse to be vaccinated could face disciplinary action or even be fired, though Mount Carmel CEO Lorraine Lutton told The Dispatch on Thursday that she hopes it doesn't come to that. Some employees may be exempt due to a medical issue or religious objection.
"We believe strongly that the vaccines are safe and the science is clear that the vaccines save lives," Lutton said.
Roughly 25% of hospital system's staff still unvaccinated
Managers within Mount Carmel will have until Aug. 24 to get vaccinated while other employees could have until the end of the year, said Dr. Mark Herbert, an infectious disease specialist with the health care provider. Employees will be required to submit the dates of their vaccinations to the health system.
"Hundreds of thousands of patients a year trust us with their care," Lutton said.
"They deserve to know when their loved ones come through our doors that we've done everything we can to reduce their risk of exposure to COVID."
Columbus Public Health supports Mount Carmel's move to require vaccinations, said spokeswoman Kelli Newman. The mandate, Newman said, has a precedent as most hospitals require employees to get the influenza vaccine to prevent disease and improve health and safety.
Although the virus has receded from its winter peak, both Lutton and Herbert said
now is the time to get vaccinated as variants threaten to elongate the pandemic.
In particular, the Delta variant, first identified in India, is of grave concern, Herbert and Lutton said. The variant now accounts for more than half of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S.,
according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But the vaccines available in the U.S. are considered effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death from the Delta variant of COVID-19.
"The Delta variant is certainly on everyone's mind, but our public health experts and researchers have said the vaccines we have work," Herbert said.