The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending more than $3.4 million to the State of Rhode Island to reimburse The Miriam Hospital for the cost of paying its staff overtime to deal with the surge in patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $3,408,967 Public Assistance grant will reimburse the private non-profit hospital in Providence – affiliated with Brown University – for the cost of paying existing staff overtime between April 2021 and June 2022.
The hospital paid 25,017 employees for 285,924 overtime hours to provide direct patient care to COVID-19 patients within the emergency, inpatient, and observation departments within the hospital.
“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist The Miriam Hospital with these costs,” said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. “Reimbursing state, county, and municipal governments – as well as eligible non-profits and tribal entities – for the costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important part of our nation’s ongoing recovery.”
FEMA’s Public Assistance program is an essential source of funding for states and communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency.
So far, FEMA has provided more than $800 million in Public Assistance grants to Rhode Island to reimburse the state for pandemic-related expenses.