COOKEVILLE – On Nov. 4, 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a rule requiring all CMS certified providers to have all staff vaccinated for COVID-19. Cookeville Regional Medical Center (CRMC) took significant efforts to comply with those CMS rules, but ended up pausing implementation efforts due to an injunction issued in federal courts.
On Jan. 13, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the matter and upheld the CMS COVID-19 vaccination mandate. As a result, CRMC must re-establish our previous efforts and finalize a process that ensures that all facility staff be either fully vaccinated or obtain a religious or clinical exemption to comply with the federal CMS rules.
CMS revised the compliance dates to the following:
- Jan. 27, 2022 – All hospital staff must have received a Covid-19 single dose vaccine from Jansesen (Johnson & Johnson) by Jan. 27 or the first dose of the Multi-dose vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19/Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine), or have a pending request for, or have been granted a qualifying exemption;
- Feb. 28, 2022 – All hospital staff must have received the second dose of the multi-dose vaccine.
CRMC feels that vaccination is the single most important step that staff can take to help achieve the safest environment for our staff and patients. We urge all hospital staff and our community members to obtain the vaccination if they haven’t already done so.
