CLEVELAND — Northeast Ohio health system MetroHealth announced Monday that more than 94% of its employees have reported being vaccinated against COVID-19. 

What You Need To Know

  • MetroHealth is reporting that over 94% of its workforce is vaccinated against COVID-19

  • The COVID-19 vaccine joined a group of other vaccines MetroHealth requires its workers to get

  • Five employees out of nearly 7,700 have not reported their vaccine status and face possible separation from MetroHealth

  • Nearly 5% of employees applied for an exemption, which will be considered over the next two months

An additional 5% of the system’s employees have applied for exemptions, MetroHealth said. In all, 99.94% of the company’s workforce have reported their vaccination status. 

Effective Saturday, MetroHealth began requiring employees to receive COVID-19 vaccinations or file for an exemption. As of Saturday, all but five employees have submitted their vaccine status. Those five employees, MetroHealth said, have been suspended without pay. Additionally, MetroHealth claimed that 12 employees have quit citing the company’s COVID-19 mandate as their reason. 

Those employees, MetroHealth said, will face a two-week suspension before separation proceedings begin. The company said it would reconsider the employees’ employment status if those employees choose to get vaccinated or prove they have already gotten a COVID-19 shot. 

For the employees who have submitted vaccine exemptions, MetroHealth said it will consider those on a rolling basis through the end of the year. 

MetroHealth said it has also required employees to get vaccinated against the flu, mumps, measles and rubella as a condition of employment. 

“I am grateful for each and every member of our team who took this important step to protect the health of their colleagues, patients, families and the community during this once-in-a-generation pandemic,” said MetroHealth President and CEO Akram Boutros. “Our employees are simply extraordinary. As an academic medical center, we embrace scientifically proven measures in everything that we do. The COVID-19 vaccination is no exception.”

In August, the Ohio Hospital Association recommended networks to require COVID-19 vaccinations among staff. A number of hospital systems in Ohio, including Metro Health, which is based in northeast Ohio, announced vaccine requirements last month. 

While MetroHealth opted to follow the Ohio Hospital Association’s recommendation, Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals did not. In September, following an announcement that the federal government would soon require health care workers to get vaccinated, the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals said.

According to Ohio's Department of Health, 64.8% of Ohioans ages 12 and up have gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

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