Summa fires 7 workers who refuse COVID-19 vaccine. CEO says mandate 'right thing to do'
Summa Health — the only Akron-area health system to mandate employees get the COVID-19 vaccination or face termination — has fired seven workers for refusing to get vaccinated.
More: Summa: 91% of employees fully vaccinated as part of employee COVID-19 vaccine mandate
That number is significantly lower than the 180, or 2%, of the health system’s 8,000-person workforce who were not in compliance in early November.
The vaccine policy required Summa employees to be fully vaccinated — or two weeks past their final dose — by Oct. 31.
About 7%, or 566 employees, requested a medical or religious exemption. Other employees not complying with the mandate were warned they would face disciplinary action, including termination.
The low number of employees who refused the vaccine and chose to be terminated was consistent with a lot of health systems who have placed similar mandates, Dr. Cliff Deveny, Summa president and CEO, said in a recent phone interview.
“I was very happy and somewhat surprised" the number of employees refusing to get vaccinated wasn't higher, Deveny said.
"But in the end, it made sense. And when you look at other health systems around the country, most of them had handfuls [of terminations], they didn't have hundreds," he said. "The model played out there."
Deveny said for those employees who faced disciplinary action leading to termination, there were several factors that led to compliance or non-compliance, including some who were vaccinated and hadn’t gotten a chance to update their vaccine status to others who decided to get the shot once they talked it over with someone.
"Obviously, there were people that were more vocal about it,” Deveny said, referring to public protests outside Summa after the mandate was announced.
“Some of the protesters were Summa employees, but not very many," he said. "I think what we found was by taking the time to sit with each employee with our infectious disease people and supervisors, people just needed the actual individual attention to answer their questions and feel like they were participating in the decision. I have many stories where people during that conversation said, ‘I get it now,’ and they went down and got [the shot]. That was more common than the ‘hell no, I won’t go.' ”
Deveny said there were “people who were obviously reluctant, scared and had misinformation and you had some hard-core ‘I'm not going to do it.' ”
But even some of the people who were initially against getting the vaccine “went ahead and did it. At that time, the CMS mandate had already been put out, so there weren’t a lot of places to run to, so to speak,” Deveny said, referring to President Joe Biden’s mandate for health care workers to be vaccinated or receive an exemption by Jan. 4 or face fines. A federal judge last week temporarily blocked the enforcement of the COVID-19 vaccine federal mandate by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Summa also has had a flu vaccine requirement for years, Deveny said. Of its employees, 300 went into the disciplinary process for not getting the flu shot and two — who also refused the COVID-19 shot — were fired, he said.
Deveny said he could not discuss specifics about medical deferments or religious exemptions because he was not directly involved in those processes, but all guidelines were followed.
“There's very few reasons for somebody to not be vaccinated [against COVID] from a medical status,” he said. A medical deferment is usually granted to people who are actively sick or have a medical reason, including “people who may have been recovering from radiation or chemo and were immunocompromised,” Deveny said.
Deveny stands by Summa’s decision to mandate the vaccine.
“It was absolutely the right thing to do," Deveny said, noting hospitals are treating increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients.
COVID-19 patients filling Akron-area hospitals
On Tuesday, the number of hospitalized COVID patients at Summit County's four hospital systems continued to rise, matching records not seen since last December. There were 294 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, up from 281 on Monday and not far from the all-time record of 318 on Dec. 15, 2020.
The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Summit County on Tuesday included 144 at Summa hospitals, 106 at Cleveland Clinic Akron General, 33 at Western Reserve Hospital in Cuyahoga Falls and 11 at Akron Children's Hospital.
Deveny said the whole infrastructure of hospitals in the region is stressed with the numbers of hospitalized patients.
“Akron is in a pretty tough spot right now ... personally, I feel it is worse than it was last year ... It's frightening to see what’s going on,” Deveny said.
“I can’t imagine what the burden would have been on the organization if we hadn’t gone down that road,” he said, referring to the vaccine mandate for his own employees.
“This is about doing what’s best for the community and for our patients,” he said. "People that work here do what’s best for the community and really follow the mission.”
Deveny said Summa has continued to hire since the mandate was announced, requiring new employees to show proof of at least one COVID-19 vaccine.
“We have continued to hire and onboard 50 to 60 new employees a week. We aren’t finding people are running away from Summa,” he said.
An employee is considered fully vaccinated with either one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine or two doses of Pfizer or Moderna.
The booster, which has since been recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because of waning immunities, is not a current requirement or condition of employment, said Deveny, "but when we started offering it, significant numbers of employees have gotten their boosters."
Other area hospitals
At the other Akron-area hospitals, Akron Children’s has announced it will move forward with requiring its employees to be fully vaccinated or receive an exemption by Jan. 4. Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals last week paused employee vaccine requirements while the federal mandate faces legal roadblocks.
More: Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Aultman pause COVID-19 vaccine worker mandates
Cleveland Clinic, which operates Akron General, Mercy Hospital in Canton and Medina Hospital, still encouraged its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Cleveland Clinic officials said systemwide, 85% of employees are vaccinated and at Akron General, the number is 84%.
Akron Children’s notified its employees in early November that it was removing the weekly testing option in lieu of vaccination by Jan. 4. The hospital has extended the deadline to Jan. 11 for employees to be fully vaccinated, receive an exemption or face termination. Hospital officials have said about 80% of employees are fully vaccinated.
Western Reserve Hospital in Cuyahoga Falls, which is not currently mandating employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine, has a staff vaccination rate of 86%.
Beacon Journal staff reporter Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ. To see her most recent stories and columns, go to www.tinyurl.com/bettylinfisher.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Number of Summa employees fired for not getting COVID shot is small
