Will County Gazette

Employees of Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet have been given a hard deadline of November 15 to receive their COVID vaccines or risk losing their jobs, according to a source.

In joining Amita Health and Edward-Elmhurst Health in making the employee vaccination policy official, hospital officials told the Chicago Tribune that their decision was independent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration moving to fully approve the Pfizer vaccine just 24 hours earlier, while Amita and Elmhurst officials both also said that they had been contemplating it for a while and were not influenced by the government’s decision.

The source told Will County Gazette those who aren’t vaccinated by November 15, will be deemed as having “voluntarily resigned." A voluntary resignation means the employees will not be eligible for unemployment. 

Silver Cross is requiring all of its 4,500-plus employees, including physicians, volunteers and students, to be vaccinated, the Chicago Tribune reported. In making the mandate official, hospital officials cited a rise in the number of COVID-19 patients, adding that the number of COVID-related patients recently reached its highest levels since April, forcing hospital officials to reopen a special negative-pressure unit to accommodate all the increased intake.

Amita and Edward-Elmhurst join all the other large hospital systems in the Chicago area now mandating workers to be vaccinated. With three Chicago-area hospitals spread across the city, Loyola Medicine was among the first to impose such requirements, mandating that all of its more than 9,000 workers be vaccinated as far back as early July, according to the Chicago Tribune. Soon after that, Rush, UI Health, University of Chicago Medicine, Advocate Aurora Health and Lurie Children’s Hospital followed suit.

Sinai Chicago and Cook County Health joined them earlier this month.

“Only by vaccinating will we stop this virus from circulating and mutating,” Amita president and CEO Keith Parrott said in a news release. Company officials added “reasonable accommodations” will be made for workers who are unable to receive the vaccination.

With the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer vaccination, Edward-Elmhurst CEO Mary Lou Mastro acknowledges the debate is far from over.

“We recognize that not everyone will agree with this decision,” Mastro said in the news release, the Chicago Tribune reported. “The ethical framework under which we operate, however, means that it is our responsibility to do good, and an individual’s right to autonomy ends when that person’s actions may harm others. … This is the right thing to do.”

With more than 14 acute care hospitals and upwards of 26,000 employees spread across the state, Amita stands as one of the largest hospital systems in the state, while with facilities in Elmhurst and Naperville, Edward-Elmhurst is home to more than 8,500 employees, including 1,900 nurses, 2,000 physicians and 1,200 volunteers, according to the Chicago Tribune.