KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Several hospitals around the Kansas City area are requiring the COVID-19 vaccine, which has sparked some front-line workers to leave their jobs and others to get immunized.
Saint Luke's Health System announced this week that 99 percent of its employees have complied with their COVID-19 vaccination requirement.
The hospital said in a news release that 120 full-time and part-time employees chose not to comply with the requirement, and the health system has more than 12,000 employees. The medical system announced the vaccine requirement at the end of August and said that those who refuse will lose their jobs. The deadline they gave employees to be fully vaccinated was Oct. 30.
University Health said almost all of its front line workers are vaccinated. Out of their about 5,000 employees, 39 people resigned who chose not to “comply with the mandate resigned from the organization." Employees have until Dec. 1 to receive a vaccine.
"We obviously strongly believe in the science and the science was speaking to us, loud and clear that this was something that we needed to take the lead on and as healthcare providers, we have an ethical obligation to our patients, and this was one way to demonstrate that," Dr. Mark Steele, Executive Chief Clinical Officer at University Health Truman Medical Center said.
AdventHealth has 86 percent of its staff vaccinated. That includes their locations at Shawnee Mission, South Overland Park and all of the clinics.
When asked if the system has a vaccination requirement, a spokesperson said, "we currently strongly encourage all of our team members to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Our intent is to comply with the federal mandate and we are waiting for details on how it will be implemented."
The University of Kansas Health System did not give KSHB 41 News a percentage of their vaccination rate as they don't know their number since its vaccine deadline isn't until Dec. 1.
LMH Health is requiring employees to get the vaccine, and before they did that, the vaccine rate was nearly 90 percent.
