Top Sanford Health Doctors Explain Employee COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement

By November 1, all Sanford Health employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19, a step that Sanford Health believes provides the safety possible environment for its patients, residents, and staff.

As the delta variant has become more prevalent worldwide, about 70% of Sanford Health employees are already vaccinated. The company has decided to require its employees to get COVID-19 vaccinated, a requirement that must be met in order to be a Sanford Health employee.

“From now until November 1, it will be a condition of employment at Sanford Health. if you don’t have a religious exemption or otherwise, we will be requiring it to work at Sanford,” said Dr. Jeremy Cauwels, Sanford Health Chief Physician. “For a great many of our employees, we have this information electronically already, so it’s not gonna be difficult for us to find. For the other folks at this point, we are working through it, but our plan is to make sure that they have shown us in some way, shape, or form their vaccination card so we have it on file.

Sanford Health in Bemidji started vaccinating their staff back in January on a voluntary basis. Now with this requirement and the deadline to be vaccinated by November, employees have time to ask vaccine-related questions.

“We really don’t have a deadline of completion until november 1,” stated Dr. David Wilcox, Sanford Health of Northern Minnesota VP Medical Officer. “And the purpose of that was to give anyone who’s reluctant to have an opportunity to have their questions asked, to give it some thought, as well as to spread that vaccination period so that people have an opportunity to get their vaccines completed.

Sanford Health will allow certain exemptions for medical or religious reasons.