Mercy Springfield hospital will require staff members to receive the Covid-19 vaccine by September 30 as area hospitals struggle with staffing and capacity due to soaring cases of the disease. The announcement comes the same week that Mercy Springfield broke its own record for the number of Covid inpatients, which stood at 125 patients Thursday (7/8). Dr. Brad Wyrsch, a Mercy physician, said there will be few exceptions to the new policy.
"For our co-workers, there are those with legitimate medical and/or religious beliefs for not receiving the COVID vaccine, and so we do have an exception policy within our HR Policy on the vaccine."
Three other healthcare providers in the region are holding off on mandating the vaccine among employees for now. CoxHealth in Springfield, Ozarks Healthcare in West Plains and Freeman Health System in Joplin all say they continue to strongly urge staff to get the vaccine.
