The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending almost $5 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse UMass Memorial Health Care, Inc. for the cost of contracting for temporary workers to deal with increased patient loads caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $4,970,434 Public Assistance grant will reimburse the health care system in central Massachusetts – headquartered in Worcester and affiliated with the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School – for contracted services and other steps taken to protect patients, staff and the public.
Between February 2020 and March 2021, the hospital paid 1,175 contracted staff for more than 67,291 hours to provide patient care for COVID patients and other services including agency staffing, security, COVID testing, food services, travel expenses, HVAC services, translation, expansion of existing facilities, medical waste disposal, facility disinfection, testing tents and personal protective equipment (PPE) storage.
Additionally, UMass Memorial Health Care, Inc. provided pickup and delivery of COVID tests, medical waste disposal, satellite and regular call service for COVID patients, heater units for testing tents, airflow testing, delivery of PPE supplies and rental of facilities to be used as testing sites.
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 $1.7 billion in Public Assistance grants to Massachusetts to reimburse the commonwealth for pandemic-related expenses.