Here's Where Each UES Hospital Stands On Vaccine Requirements

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Mount Sinai's announcement on Thursday that it would require all employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine made it one of the last major East Side hospitals to impose such a mandate — and leaving only one that had not publicly announced its plans.

Mount Sinai, whose main hospital is on Madison Avenue near East 101st Street, announced it would force its faculty and staff to get their first doses by Sept. 13, citing the rapid spread of the contagious delta variant.

"Those who do not get the shot and do not receive a medical or religious exemption will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination," Dr. Kenneth L. Davis, the system's president and CEO, said in a message to staff. "We are committed to ending this pandemic and keeping our Mount Sinai family and the communities we serve safe."

A large majority of Mount Sinai staff are already vaccinated, Davis said.

The first East Side medical center to impose a mandate was NewYork-Presbyterian, which said in June it would require vaccines by September. Those who are exempted for health or religious reasons will be forced to get tested weekly, the system said.

As of Wednesday, 75 percent of hospital workers in Manhattan were fully vaccinated, according to state data — slightly higher than the 71 percent citywide rate.

Here's where each East Side hospital stands:

Hospital for Special Surgery:

• The Hospital for Special Surgery issued a mandate for all staff in late June, ordering vaccinations by Sept. 15.
• Like most other systems, it includes a clause allowing medical or religious exemptions. Any employees who refuse to get vaccinated and have no exemptions "will no longer be employed at HSS," a spokesperson said.

Lenox Hill Hospital/Northwell Health:

• Lenox Hill's parent company, Northwell Health, announced a vaccine mandate for its 76,000 employees in early August, requiring them to get their first shots by Aug. 16.
• Unlike the other centers in the neighborhood, Northwell’s consequence for not getting vaccinated is weekly tests, and failure to get tested could result in termination. (New hires, students and volunteers are also required to get vaccinated.)
• About 77 percent of Northwell employees were already vaccinated when the policy was announced on Aug. 2, a spokesperson said.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center:

• The York Avenue cancer center has not publicly announced any vaccine mandate for staff.
• Mark Levine, a City Council member who chairs the Health Committee, tweeted that Sloan Kettering was requiring shots by Sept. 1, but the institution did not respond to questions about whether this was the case.

NewYork-Presbyterian:

• NewYork-Presbyterian, which operates Weill Cornell Medical Center, has extended the initial deadlines it gave employees, now allowing until Sept. 15 to get the first dose.
• Complying with the order, either by getting a shot or obtaining an exemption, "will be required for your continued employment," the hospital system told employees.

Besides private hospitals, the city has imposed a similar vaccine mandate on workers in its own public hospitals and health clinics. Those workers must receive weekly tests if they do not get vaccinated.