Greene County Medical Center announced that all staff will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

All staff, including medical center employees, providers and contracted workers and volunteers are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by November 1st. Interim CEO Brian Benson said in a statement:

“Our decision was extremely intentional and comes after several weeks of discussion and input from our leaders, other Iowa rural hospitals, and information from other healthcare entities.” 

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Laurie Connolly says they thrive on medical facts and science, which provided the best path forward for the medical center to require all staff to be vaccinated and they encourage community members to also be vaccinated. 

As of August 31st, about 74-percent of all full-time and part-time employees were vaccinated. Greene County Public Health is reporting as of September 1st, there 1,020 total cases of COVID-19 in Greene County, which is an additional 33 new cases since September 1st. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), evidence indicates that people full vaccinated for COVID-19 are less likely than unvaccinated persons to acquire COVID-19 and to transmit it to others. Fully vaccinated people are less likely to have severe illness or be hospitalized with COVID-19. 

Greene County Medical Center employees can apply for religious and medical exemptions and be deferred from being vaccinated during pregnancy. The decision to require vaccinations was supported by the leadership team, providers and the board of directors.