​​​COLUMBUS, Ohio — OhioHealth is pausing the timeline of its vaccine requirement, the health system said Monday.

What You Need To Know

  • The health system said it still believes the vaccine should be required

  • A judge's injunction halted the federal health care vaccine requirement

  • Other Ohio hospitals have reevaluated their policies since the halt

OhioHealth still intends to require vaccination for its employees, officials said in a statement. 

The health system’s announcement of the pause comes days after a Dec. 1 deadline that its 35,000 associates, providers and volunteers were given to complete vaccination.

“Our process was developed to ensure compliance with state and federal law. However, given the recent regulatory and legislative issues we are pausing our timeline. We are not changing our mandate process, but we are pausing on the timeline at this point,” OhioHealth said in a statement.

A judge's injunction last week halted the federal vaccine requirement for about 17 million Americans who work in the health sector — a mandate that the Biden administration announced on Sept. 9.

Since the federal requirement was halted, several Ohio health systems have reevaluated their policies.

The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals in Cleveland paused their vaccine mandates Thursday, while other Ohio hospitals said they were reviewing the implications of the halt.

OhioHealth was one of the earlier health system’s in Ohio to announce a vaccine requirement, informing employees on Aug. 3. Ohio State Wexner Medical Center announced its mandate at the same time.

Officials were clear in their statement Monday that the pause does not mean the mandate has been scrapped.

“We believe, like the majority of health systems nationwide, that requiring the vaccine is the right thing to do to protect our patients and staff from COVID-19 and are moving forward with our decision to require the COVID-19 vaccine or have an approved medical or religious exemption,” OhioHealth said.

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