KANSAS CITY, Mo. — CoxHealth President and CEO Steve Edwardsannounced on social media that 99.5% of employees complied with the hospital's COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Edwards said that 64 out of 12,500 employees, 0.51%, did not comply with the mandate and were discharged.
"Hospitals have required employee vaccination for decades," Edwards said in the post. "A patient should expect not to be exposed to a deadly disease while in the hospital."
The health system announced the vaccination requirement in late August after the FDA fully approvedthe Pfizer vaccine.
The deadline for employees to receive the first dose of the vaccine was Oct. 15. Edwards previously said that medical and religious exemptions would be carefully considered but any employee with an exemption would be required to take COVID-19 tests.
