Monday, July 20, 2020

Contingency plans may be needed as coronavirus cases rise, CEO of Miami-area health system says

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Contingency plans may be needed as coronavirus cases rise, CEO of Miami-area health system says

From CNN's Aditi Sangal
Carlos Migoya, president and CEO of Jackson Health System, on CNN's "New Day" on July 20.
Carlos Migoya, president and CEO of Jackson Health System, on CNN's "New Day" on July 20. CNN
While dozens of hospitals in Florida are reporting 0% of ICU beds available, Miami-Dade's Jackson Health System is teetering every day, the CEO says, adding that they may be preparing for a plan B and C, given the growth in cases.
“We're building a 100 new ICU beds but unfortunately, they’re not going to be around until the end of the year,” President CEO Carlos Migoya told CNN. “We've only seen a [case] growth of 60% in the last 14 days and in specific ICU only 18%, we expect those numbers to grow a little higher, and for that reason, we may be putting plans B and C into place.”
The hospital staff is also under strain during this surge. At least 200 employees have tested positive for Covid-19 and aren’t coming in to work currently, he said. Out of those 200, 37 are nurses.
“Gov. DeSantis has helped us out quite a bit by providing an extra 200 nurses to us at this point in time, and actually been extremely important for us. We've also hired another 90 or 100 nurses but all of that is influx at this point in time. It's a big challenge and a lot of anxiety for everyone,” he said.
Under this strain, health care workers at the Jackson Health System have asked for hazard pay. However, Migoya says they’re not able to provide it at this point.
“At this point in time we've lost in excess of over $80 million and not been able to catch up with the federal support, but we have not gotten any funding from HHS,” Migoya says. “We are financially challenged.”

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