Panel OKs $48M for hospital beds
The Arkansas Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee on Friday approved the state Department of Health’s request to use a total of $48.2 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to partner with Baptist Health and Unity Health White County Medical Center to provide more hospital beds for COVID-19 patients.
The action came after the steering committee appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson to recommend the best uses of $1.57 billion in federal American Rescue Plan funds on Wednesday endorsed the department’s request for $37.68 million to partner with Baptist Health and on Thursday for $10.54 million to partner with Unity Health White County Medical Center.
The steering committee on Thursday also endorsed the state Department of Human Services’ two requests for authority to use a total of $245.6 million in the federal aid to assist hospitals and nursing homes. The Legislative Council will consider these two requests Monday afternoon.
Under its partnership plan with the Health Department, Baptist Health would provide 157 additional staffed COVID-19 beds, plus the nursing and ancillary support personnel and supplies to care for the patients in these beds.
Baptist Health in Little Rock would provide 50 more staffed medical COVID-19 beds, and Baptist Health in Van Buren would provide 74 more such beds under this proposal. The Little Rock hospital would provide 12 more staffed intensive care unit COVID-19 beds, and Baptist Health in Fort Smith would provide 21 more of those beds under plan. Baptist Health would add more than 400 caregivers and support staff, including more than 170 nurses.
The $37.68 million budget for this request would equate to $4,000 per staffed bed for 60 days, according to the Health Department. Their use could be extended.
During Friday’s meeting of the Joint Budget Committee, Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, asked the Health Department if other hospitals were contacted about participating in this program.
Department Chief of Staff Renee Mallory said, “We did not at the beginning … because Baptist was the one that built out beds during the first [COVID-19] wave so we reached out to Baptist to see about utilizing those beds.”
Baptist Health plans to contract with staffing agencies to secure out-of-state nurses to staff these additional COVID-19 beds, she noted.
But Sen. Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis, said, “The thing that bothers me more than anything was the Department of Health reached out to Baptist and was ignorant of the fact that Unity [Health White County Medical Center] had beds that were ready to go. All they lacked was staffing.”
Health Secretary Jose Romero told the steering committee Thursday that Unity Health submitted its request Wednesday, after that committee endorsed the request for Baptist Health.
In addition, Ingram, who serves on the 15-member steering committee, said Friday he was given only about an hour to review the Department of Humans Services’ requests for $245.6 million and the Health Department’s $10.5 million request ahead of Thursday’s meeting.
“I am very uncomfortable with all of these proposals,” he said.
“I would like you all to think if you are not comfortable with these [proposals] to run this back through” the Legislative Council’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee and the Legislative Council, Ingram told his fellow lawmakers. During the meeting on Thursday, Ingram complained about when he received the proposals.
At that time, Steering Committee Chairman Larry Walther told Ingram, “Trust me, it was the circumstances that surrounded the events of today that caused this to be delayed, and we have moved quickly as humanly possible.
“I will assure you that,” Walther said Thursday. “We want it out as quickly as possible each and every time. Today was quite unusual. It has been a very stressful day. Let me just put it that way.”
Unity Health
Under its partnership plan with the Health Department, Unity Health White County Medical Center would increase staffed hospital beds by 43, including 34 COVID-19 medical beds and nine COVID-19 intensive care unit beds at its campuses in Searcy.
Unity Health estimated a cost of $10.54 million to secure the needed personnel, physicians and supplies for patients for up to 60 days, according to Unity Health President and CEO Steven Webb. Unity Health’s request would equate to $4,000 per staffed bed for 60 days. Their use could be extended.
Unity Health plans to add 48 registered nurses and five emergency nurses, according to the Health Department. In total, Unity Health plans to hire roughly 100 full-time employees, a spokesperson for United Health said afterward.
Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said, “The goal and commitment is these nurses will come out of state.”
“At any given time, there are 30 COVID patients in the hospital and there seven to 15 that are in the emergency room waiting for beds,” he said, referring to Unity Health White County Medical Center.
“We are generally a regional hospital, and we pull from a lot of north central [Arkansas] rural areas where there is a lot of demand,” Dismang said.
He said he has been talking to Unity Health for a long time about the surge with COVID-19 patients and the need for beds.
“We are shifting COVID patients out of state and not able to get them cared for here because we don’t have the facilities or beds to take care of them,” Dismang said.
Rep. Lee Johnson, R-Greenwood, said that “the staffing is the critical issue” for expanded hospital capacity for COVID-19 beds.
“I think the timing of this is important,” he said. “Would you agree that we are currently in a dire situation where time is of the essence and we are competing against multiple states for a single resource?”
In response, Mallory said, “Yes, sir.”
“It’s kind of like the PPE [personal protective equipment] issue and the issues that we had early on in the pandemic, people are buying out stuff from under us so it is a critical time,” she said.
In May, Hutchinson appointed the 15-member steering committee — including nine Hutchinson administration officials and six state lawmakers — to recommend the best uses of $1.57 billion in federal American Rescue Plan funds that the state will receive.
In March, President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which is aimed at combating the COVID-19 pandemic, including public health and economic impacts.