About 440 Advocate Aurora Health workers leave over mandate

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. (AP) — About 440 employees at Advocate Aurora Health have either left the health care company or have been fired for not complying with a vaccine mandate, the hospital group said Thursday.

The affected workers who represent 0.6% of Advocate Aurora’s workforce, “were not in compliance and have parted ways with the organization,” the group said in a statement.

“With about 99% of our team members compliant or in the process of becoming compliant with our vaccine policy, we are protecting the health and safety of our patients, communities and each other,” the statement read.

About half of the 440 employees were not full-time employees and were scheduled on an “as-needed basis,” the group said.

Advocate Aurora Health represents 26 hospitals and 500 care sites in Illinois and Wisconsin.

The deadline to comply with the mandate was Friday and workers initially were given a three-day suspension to have one last chance to comply, the company said.

The company announced in August that it would require employees to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15, with limited exceptions for specific religious or medical reasons. The requirement applied to the company’s 75,000 team members across Illinois and Wisconsin, including remote workers and those who don’t directly work with patients.