SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Workers at any Mercy facility are nearly 100% fully vaccinated. This is part of Mercy’s commitment to the health and wellbeing of protecting anyone from covid-19 in their facilities. Less than 2% of the 40,000 co-workers at Mercy chose to remain unvaccinated through religious or medical exemption, but have to undergo rigorous masking and protective equipment protocols and frequent testing.

“What we all know is that when you visit a doctor’s office or hospital, you’re often already compromised in some way – whether it’s a cold or cancer or diabetes. That makes it even more urgent for us to make sure Mercy does everything possible to protect our patients, visitors, and co-workers. It’s our responsibility as a health care organization to make our spaces as safe as possible. We take that responsibility very seriously,” said Dr. John Mohart, Mercy’s chief clinical officer and senior vice president.

This decision by Mercy puts them in line across the country with many other health care organizations and companies who all recognize the covid vaccination as something that protects patients and is a safeguard for public health. Dr. Jeff Ciaramita, Mercy’s chief physician executive and senior vice president, adds “Virtually all of our co-workers have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19, making it highly unlikely that our co-workers would spread the virus. Everyone wants to return to some kind of normalcy after the world has been turned upside down by this pandemic. This is a step in the right direction that we hope others continue to follow.”

The vaccination requirement was announced on October 1 and stated that any unvaccinated co-workers or ones who had not gotten an approved exemption would be placed on a 28-day unpaid suspension with full benefits.