The Mayo Clinic fired roughly 700 employees who failed to comply with the nonprofit medical center’s mandatory Covid-19 vaccination policy.
Mayo Clinic fires 700 workers who failed to comply with Covid vaccine mandate
“We need to take all steps necessary to keep our patients, workforce, visitors and communities safe,” the Mayo Clinic said in a statement.
Mayo Clinic fires 700 workers who didn’t comply with Covid vaccine mandate
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Jan. 5, 2022, 4:09 PM UTC / Updated Jan. 5, 2022, 10:16 PM UTC
By Chantal Da Silva
The Mayo Clinic fired roughly 700 employees who failed to comply with the nonprofit medical center’s mandatory Covid-19 vaccination policy.
Workers at the Mayo Clinic had been given until Monday to get their first dose of a vaccine or obtain a medical or religious exemption to the rule. They were also expected not to delay on receiving a second dose if they had already gotten the first jab.
Hundreds of employees failed to meet those requirements and were let go, the Mayo Clinic said in a statement shared with NBC News on Wednesday.
“Nearly 99 percent of employees across all Mayo Clinic locations complied with Mayo’s required Covid-19 vaccination program by the Jan. 3 deadline,” the clinic said of its staff, which consists of around 73,000 workers.
The Mayo Clinic said approximately 1 percent of its staff, or around 700 people, would be “released from employment.”
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The clinic added that the majority of medical or religious exemption requests made by workers were granted.
“While Mayo Clinic is saddened to lose valuable employees, we need to take all steps necessary to keep our patients, workforce, visitors and communities safe,” the clinic said.
However, it said fired employees could have the chance to return to the medical center if they choose to comply with its vaccine mandate.
“If individuals released from employment choose to get vaccinated at a later date, the opportunity exists for them to apply and return to Mayo Clinic for future job openings,” it said.
The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Around 700 workers at the medical center have been fired over their vaccination status. Kerem Yucel / AFP via Getty Images file
The Mayo Clinic has faced some backlash over its policy, with 38 lawmakers signing a letter to the hospital last month asking it to ax the rule.
In the letter, which was orchestrated by Peggy Bennett, a Republican member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, lawmakers said they had heard from “a large number of highly concerned Mayo employees” who raised concerns about the policy move.
“This top down, heavy-handed, all-or-none employee policy does not fit the reputation or image we know the Mayo Clinic to have,” they said.
“Your amazing employees stepped up under unimaginable pandemic conditions over the last year and a half, exposing themselves and their families to a then mostly unknown virus and working long, grueling hours to take care of sick patients,” they said. “Many of your employees were sickened by the virus at that time. They did all this willingly to serve Mayo Clinic patients and the people of Minnesota. They did so for all these months without the protection of any vaccine.”
The lawmakers said they were not “opposed to vaccinations” but said “people deserve to make this decision based on the benefits and risks for themselves and not coerced or forced into doing so by threat of losing one’s job.”
Asked to respond to the letter, the Mayo Clinic referred NBC News to its initial statement.
In the statement, the clinic said that “based on science and data, it’s clear that vaccination keeps people out of the hospital and saves lives.”
“That’s true for everyone in our communities — and it’s especially true for the many patients with serious or complex diseases who seek care at Mayo Clinic each day,” it said.
In the midst of the spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant, the Mayo Clinic said it “urges all who are not vaccinated to get vaccinated as soon as possible. And if you are eligible for a booster, Mayo Clinic urges you to get a booster as soon as possible to help protect your health and the health of everyone around you.”
Chantal Da Silva
Chantal Da Silva is a breaking news editor for NBC News Digital based in London.
Weeks after Minnesota nurses warn of staffing crisis, Mayo Clinic fires 700 unvaccinated workers
The fired employees account for 1% of the Mayo Clinic’s workforce
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The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota fired 700 unvaccinated employees just weeks after other nurses pleaded with hospital CEOs in the state to address a staffing “crisis.”
“While Mayo Clinic is saddened to lose valuable employees, we need to take all steps necessary to keep our patients, workforce, visitors and communities safe,” the clinic said in a statement, the Star Tribune reported Tuesday. “If individuals released from employment choose to get vaccinated at a later date, the opportunity exists for them to apply and return to Mayo Clinic for future job openings.”
The employees had until Monday to get vaccinated. The 700 people fired represents about 1% of the medical center’s 73,000 employees.
The Mayo Clinic nonprofit Hospital Methodist Campus located in Rochester, Minnesota (iStock)
“While final numbers are still not available, nearly 99% of staff across all Mayo Clinic locations have complied with the required vaccination program, meaning they have been vaccinated or have received medical or religious exemptions,” the clinic added in its statement.
Just ahead of Christmas, nurses represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association held a press conference to plead with various hospital CEOs in the state to address a staffing and retention crisis.
“To our patients, I want to say this: Nurses will be here when you need us,” Mary C. Turner, union president and a COVID-19 intensive care unit nurse, said at the Dec. 20 press conference. “To our hospital CEOs and elected officials, please hear us: Nurses need more than words, we need action to address the crisis of staffing and retention in Minnesota hospitals.”
The Mayo Clinic did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment if the medical center is also facing a staffing crisis and if the fired staff will be relocated to hospitals in need of workers.
Staffing issues have plagued hospitals across the country as the omicron variant of the virus spikes.
The CEO of Scripps Health in San Diego said this week that six to eight health care workers are calling the hospital per hour to report they have COVID.
Two health care workers talking at the UCI (iStock)
“In the emergency departments, we do have patients that are literally stacked up 20 to 30 in some of the hospitals, waiting for an open bed that will hopefully be available when we discharge patients,” Chris Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health, told NBC 7 San Diego.
County officials have sent two alerts this week notifying hospitals of a temporary suspension of the emergency diversion policy, which redirects ambulances to less crowded hospitals.
“San Diego County [emergency diversion] capacity is exhausted,” read an alert sent to hospitals on Monday, NBC 7 San Diego reported. “More than 80% of all adult civilian EDs are on diversion. Facilities on diversion will be returned to open status immediately and will remain open until 0800 tomorrow morning.”
A mother of a hospitalized girl talks to a doctor in a hospital. (iStock)
In Rhode Island, the state’s department of health updated its guidance to allow COVID-positive health care workers to continue working if they have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic, and if their hospital is facing a staffing crisis.
The state-run Eleanor Slater Hospital declared a staffing crisis and put employees with “mild symptoms” back to work. A nursing home, the Respiratory and Rehabilitation Center of Rhode Island, on Monday morning began using “using asymptomatic staff that recently tested positive” and by midmorning was no longer facing a “crisis,” according to Health Department spokesman Joseph Wendelken.
Other states have called in the National Guard to help bolster hospital staff, including in New York where tens of thousands of health care workers were fired last year over not complying with vaccine mandates.
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