Advocate Aurora Health Now Requiring Employees To Be Vaccinated

LEMONT, IL — Advocate Aurora Health is joining health care providers and organizations across the country by requiring all 75,000 team members in Illinois and Wisconsin to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Oct. 15. Failure to become fully vaccinated without an approved exemption by the deadline will follow the same process as flu vaccine non-compliance and will result in termination.

The announcement, which was made Wednesday, affects Advocate Aurora's 75,000 employees in Illinois and Wisconsin, including Advocate Good Samaritan Immediate Care Center and Outpatient Center, 15900 W. 127th St., in Lemont. All employees, including doctors, nurses, medical assistants, support staff, maintenance and volunteers, must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Oct. 15, the healthcare provider said, adding that only a small number of exceptions that will apply.

A decision that underlines safety as the system's top priority, the mandate also applies to Advocate hospitals and medical centers in Libertyville, Oak Lawn, Park Ridge, Downers Grove and Barrington, the healthcare provider said in a news release.

"We are first and foremost a safe, clinical enterprise. Our ultimate duty is to protect the health and safety of our team members, patients and communities," Advocate Aurora President and CEO Jim Skogsbergh told team members Wednesday in a video. "The data is overwhelming. This vaccine is safe, and it's highly effective in preventing infection and, even more so, serious illness and death."

Wednesday's decision was made as hospitals and other medical facilities around the country have required workers to be vaccinated. Advocate Aurora inpatient COVID-19 hospitalizations have increased five-fold over the past three weeks, and the system's test positivity rate is the highest it's been since January, officials said.

"While COVID is far from gone, our story is still being written. Let this decision to mandate vaccines be another chapter in our book — one that says we have done everything we can to keep our patients, our communities and each other safe and healthy," Skogsbergh said in the video message to employees.

National data released in recent weeks shows that nearly all recent COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths have occurred in the unvaccinated population.

With limited exceptions for specific religious or medical reasons, the requirement also includes remote workers and those who don't work directly with patients, as well as medical staff, students, volunteers and on-site vendors, Advocate Aurora said in a news release on Wednesday.

More than 340 million vaccine doses have been safely administered in the United States. Recent national data shows that nearly all recent COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths have occurred in the unvaccinated population.

Visit Advocate Aurora Health for a list of more than 350 locations.