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Q&A
Handling the expiration of COVID dollars and continuation of programs
0:17:00
·
94 sec
Council Member Brannan inquires about challenges in continuing programs initially funded by temporary COVID dollars. H+H officials explain their successful transition from temporary measures to permanent solutions.
- H+H has hired over 3,000 permanent nurses to replace expensive temporary contract nurses
- The health system has successfully 'decanted' itself off COVID funding
- H+H spent its share of COVID grant money within the designated period, unlike some other departments that needed extensions
Justin L. Brannan
0:17:00
Okay.
0:17:01
So one of the things we've spoken about the past couple of budget cycles is how we're handling the final expiration of COVID dollars.
0:17:10
And there were a lot of what have become, you know, crucial programs that were became permanent programs but it was propped up with temporary money.
0:17:19
Are you seeing challenges there to how for how to continue some of these programs that people now rely on that may have been funded by money that's expiring?
John Ulberg
0:17:27
Yeah.
0:17:28
For us, no.
0:17:29
I would say the answer to that, we've lived through the problems that we were having with the temporary nurses.
0:17:35
We found ourselves in really a financial pinch there because we had a lot of temp nurses that were very expensive.
0:17:43
But happy to report, we've hired over 3,000 of our own nurses and we've gotten rid of we've no longer continued the contract with our contract nurses, and we prefer to have our our own.
0:17:59
So I would say no.
0:18:00
We've decanted ourselves off of COVID, I think, very successfully.
0:18:03
I think we came out actually a little bit stronger.
Mitchell Katz
0:18:06
I I would just add because I I know the grant you mean.
0:18:09
From that, that was a grant where many of us, many of the departments had dollars that were used for extensions, but we had spent the money in the period.
0:18:19
So we weren't part of the extension.
0:18:21
Got it.
0:18:21
So like my sister department, DOHMH, they needed to continue to use those dollars.
0:18:28
But our share was spent, as John said, on nurses.
0:18:31
And so it ended.
0:18:32
We're not part of the extension.