Major Health Care Provider Requiring Employees to be Vaccinated Against Coronavirus

Tuesday, June 29th, 2021 -- 10:00 AM

(Bob Hague, WRN) -One of the state's major health care providers is requiring it's employees be vaccinated against the coronavirus, and urging the rest of us to get the shot as well.

Dr. Matt Hanley is Interim Regional President with SSM Health Wisconsin, "We still have a ways to go, and the pandemic is not over. And we would like to make it an end-emic, as opposed to a pandemic."

SSM Health will now require all its nearly 40,000 employees, providers and volunteers in four states to be fully vaccinated by the end of September.  "No different than other vaccines that we would require for work. If the employee doesn't meet the condition of employment, they will go through the normal HR processes, and won't be employed at SSM."

Dr. Hanley continued, "We are a health care provider. We need to keep our patients safe, and we need to keep our staff safe. We know the vaccines work, we know they're safe, and we know they're a critical way for us to prevent the continued spread, and the continued mutations of the COVID virus."

Dr. Hanley continued, "We're going to start with leaders. So we're asking that all leaders receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by July 31, and that all employees receive their first dose by September 1st."

To date, 77 percent of SSM employees in Wisconsin have been vaccinated.

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