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West Virginia hospitals receive a financial boost

CHARLESTON -- About $17 million will be distributed to hospitals around West Virginia to support overtime, temporary staffing and retention bonuses as part of the first round of the Saving Our Care initiative.

Gov. Jim Justice announced the program last month to assist hospitals and nursing homes dealing with the COVID-19 surge that saw West Virginia reach its highest numbers of active cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks.

During Justice's online COVID-19 briefing Thursday, state Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Bill Crouch said officials have received the data they needed about hospitals' staffing costs during August.

"We're using a variety of funds, trying to maximize federal dollars so that we can save our state dollars as much as possible, as they're needed," he said.

The heads of three of the largest health systems in the state also appeared on the briefing.

"The current surge has been the most challenging thing in my 25-year career of doing this, just the number of COVID patients and hospitalizations we've had," said Albert Wright, president and CEO of the West Virginia University Health System.

The funding "will allow us to bring in some travel staff, will allow us to pay some overtime and will allow us, quite honestly, to bonus some of our folks that we need to retain," he said.

Wright was joined by Charleston Area Medical Center CEO David Ramsey and Dr. Kevin Yingling, CEO of the Mountain Health Network, in discussing the benefits of the funding.

"What you're doing today is really very meaningful to CAMC and really hospitals across the state," Ramsey said. "We will get through this with your leadership and frankly the team you've put together."

Justice read the names of 97 West Virginians whose deaths had been attributed to COVID-19 since the last briefing on Monday, bringing the state's death toll to 3,866. He noted while the number of active cases has decreased, the effects of the surge were still being felt as patients remained hospitalized.

"Our numbers are getting better, which leads us to believe wholeheartedly that we have passed through the eye of the storm," Justice said. "(But) we're heading right toward 4,000 deaths in West Virginia. And who knows … where it will stop?"

Dr. Ayne Amjad, public health commissioner, said the delta variant of the virus remains a threat even though active case numbers have dropped below 12,000, after reaching a record of 29,744 on Sept. 16.

"I think the variant has kind of (run) it's course, but we're still seeing some cases out there, so we don't want people to think that just because we're seeing a lesser number that they need to let their guard down," she said. "They still need to get vaccinated; they still need to do all the mitigation efforts that we've discussed."

Justice reminded people about the availability of the Mountaineer Rental Assistance Program, which provides assistance to renters and landlords impacted financially by the pandemic. There have been 9,739 applications processed and $46.9 million in assistance distributed, he said. Information on the program is available at www.wvmrap.com.

Justice made several other announcements unrelated to COVID during the meeting, including that West Virginia ranked among the top 10 states in the country in terms of gross domestic product growth for the second quarter of the year, at a rate of 7.3%, according to the U.S. Bureau for Economic Analysis.

"It's just amazing. Businesses are scaling up operations; we're knocking it out of the park all across the board," he said. "We've seen big gains through tourism and hospitality and mining and the oil and gas sectors."

The governor also lashed out at Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin for requesting a special legislative session to address issues related to homelessness, drug abuse and mental health, calling it "nothing except a political move to cover up her deficiencies."

"If Amy Goodwin wants to do something, why doesn't she do something in Charleston?" he said.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.