INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A federal judge has refused to block Ascension St. Vincent from requiring its employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19.
Judge James Patrick Hanlon rejected Dr. Paul Halczenko’s request for an injunction against the health care provider.
Halczenko, who worked as a pediatric critical care physician at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital, had asked the judge to force Ascension to reinstate him to his job.
The lawsuit says Ascension placed Halcznenko on unpaid leave in November after rejecting his request for a vaccine exemption based on his “sincerely held religious beliefs.”
In the ruling dated Thursday, Hanlon found that Halczenko “has failed to make a ‘substantial showing’ of irreparable injury” that would justify ordering him to be reinstated through a temporary injunction.
Hanlon also wrote that any “claimed reputational injury—and corresponding impediment to finding a comparable job—would arise from the undisputed, truthful fact that Dr. Halczenko’s employment was terminated because he did not get vaccinated against COVID-19.”
Ascension announced in December it would not enforce the vaccine mandate on all employees.
Four other workers who are part of the lawsuit have been reinstated.
