The City of Irving plans to fund its local Baylor Scott & White Medical Center’s staffing costs related to COVID-19. The city council voted this month to give the hospital $1 million to cover staffing expenses.
According to The Dallas Morning News, the $1 million to be given to the hospital is money received from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. That is out of $13 million in total, which Irving received from the federal relief act.
According to the November 11 city council agenda, Baylor Medical Center in Irving requested $5 million initially, but only $1 million was approved by the city council.
The funds the City of Irving is giving to its branch of Baylor Medical Center can be used for payroll and benefits expenses of employees who work in public health, health care, and human services. The money may also be used to provide employees with overtime pay.
The funds can also be used to compensate employees whose work is substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the pandemic.
This allocation is not a grant, however. Pending sufficient documentation, attached to the agreement is a reimbursement plan to repay the funds. The reimbursement must be consistent with applicable laws related to the funds outlined by the CARES Act.
So far, Texas has spent about $7 billion of federal funds towards funding temporary health care workers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a late November report by The Dallas Morning News.
This amount has gone to health care workers ranging from temporary nurses, respiratory therapists, and some doctors to maintain operations at hospitals and “alternate care sites.”