OHIO — MetroHealth announced Thursday morning that it will require vaccination against COVID-19 for its employees, becoming the first major health system in Cleveland to issue a mandate.
MetroHealth’s 600 doctors, 1,700 nurses and 7,800 employees have until Oct. 30 to be fully vaccinated.
The announcement follows the Food and Drug Administration’s full authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Monday.
“Protecting caregivers against COVID-19 is the right thing to do,” MetroHealth President Dr. Akram Boutros said in the announcement.
More than 80% of MetroHealth’s staff is already vaccinated, hospital officials said. Under the new policy, medical and religious exemption are accepted.
“Our profession has been hailed as heroic because we were there when there was no protection from this disease. We cared for people and put ourselves at risk. We don’t have to do that anymore. We can and have to take care of our patients and ourselves,” Boutros said.
Many Ohio hospitals announced vaccine requirements earlier in the month, prior to the FDA’s full authorization. On Aug. 2, the Ohio Hospital Association’s board approved a statement urging the state’s hospitals to make immunization mandatory.
In early August, the major central Ohio hospitals announced vaccine requirements, followed by groups of Cincinnati hospitals and Dayton-area hospitals. However, Cleveland hospitals held off until MetroHealth’s announcement Thursday.
The other two major hospital systems in Cleveland, University Hospitals and the Cleveland Clinic, have not announced mandates at this time. Officials for both hospitals said earlier in the month that they will continue to closely monitor COVID-19 developments for any policy changes.
