Mon, Aug 2nd, 2021 - 1:07pm
November 01, 2021 - 2:15pm | By Kyle Cornell
(Fargo, ND) -- In the wake of their own vaccine mandate, Sanford Health has announced how many workers in the Fargo area have been furloughed.
As of Monday, Sanford says 31 of the over 9800 workers in our region were put on leave due to not getting the vaccine or applying for a medical or religious exemption. In a statement released to WDAY Radio, Sanford does say that none of the employees who were furloughed were physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners or CRNAs. You can read the full statement released by Vice President and Medical Officer Dr. Doug Griffin below.
"Sanford Health was proud to be one of the first health care providers in the country to announce we would require all employees to get a Covid-19 vaccination to protect our patients and our people. The vaccine mandate has worked. As a result of our high employee vaccination rate, we have also seen a decline in Covid-19 infections and sick leave among staff. We remain committed to doing all we can to ensure a safe care and work environment for our patients and employees. All employees in our clinical and patient-facing settings continue to wear surgical masks, and we continue to have visitor restrictions in some areas.
Employees who have received an approved medical or religious exemption will be required to comply with regular testing. Employees who don’t have an approved exemption or haven’t started their vaccine series by today will be suspended for up to 60 days without pay and removed from the work schedule. Continued failure to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine requirements within 60 days will result in the employee being considered to have voluntarily resigned from their employment. Out of the 9800 employees in the Sanford Fargo region, only 31 employees have left as a result of the vaccine mandate. Of the 31 employees furloughed, zero of the employees are physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners or CRNAs."
Essentia Health has also announced layoffs for their own vaccine mandate. Click here for those numbers.
