Cleveland Clinic will require employee vaccinations due to federal mandate

The Cleveland Clinic announced Friday it will comply with the federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees.

The Biden administration announced last week that employees at health care facilities receiving Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) funding will have to get the first dose of the vaccine by Dec. 5. Employees need to be fully vaccinated by January 4, 2022. 

In accordance with the mandate, the Cleveland Clinic is requiring their U.S. employees and those who provide services with the hospital to be fully vaccinated by the Jan. 4 deadline, according to a press release from hospital officials. 

Anyone not vaccinated without an accepted religious or medical exemption will no longer be able to work for the hospital, according to the release. 

"In anticipation of this rule, we had enacted a COVID-19 Vaccine Validation Program to collect the vaccination status of all of our caregivers throughout our U.S. locations. We are proud that the majority of our caregivers are already vaccinated, and we are encouraging those who are not yet vaccinated to receive their vaccine as quickly as possible," the statement said. 

Before the mandate, the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals were not requiring staff to be vaccinated. University Hospitals is also preparing plans to comply with the mandate. 

MetroHealth required COVID-19 vaccinations for staff before the federal mandate. They suspended five employees without pay for not sharing their vaccination staus by the deadline. 

Cleveland Clinic is the largest employer in Northeast Ohio and the second largest in the state, according to clinic officials.