The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending nearly $3.7 million to the State of Maine to reimburse Maine Medical Center in Portland for the cost of testing employees and hiring temporary staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $3,676,485 Public Assistance grant will reimburse the 637-bed teaching hospital and flagship facility for MaineHealth for testing and hiring temporary nursing staff between April 2021 and June 2022.
Maine Medical Center administered 66,406 COVID tests to employees, and contracted with Cross Country Staffing to provide four registered nurses for a total of 2,015 hours who were assigned to the COVID call center for organization-wide incident management.
“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist Maine Medical Center with these costs,” said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. “Providing resources for our partners on the front lines of the pandemic fight is critical to their success, and to our success as a nation.”
So far, FEMA has provided more than $232 million in Public Assistance grants to Maine to reimburse the state for pandemic-related expenses.