FEMA Awards Over $4 Million to Tufts Medical Center for COVID Staffing

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending more than $4 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse Tufts Medical Center for the cost of providing temporary clinical staffing to care for COVID-19 patients during the pandemic. 

The $4,006,882 grant will reimburse the teaching hospital in Boston affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine for the cost of hiring temporary staff to accommodate the surge of COVID-19 patients and to fulfill the need for additional healthcare providers. 

Between July and October 2022, 59 registered nurses worked 28,421 hours to provide care for COVID-19 patients, including testing, treatment, triage and daily temperature checks, increased monitoring visits, checking venting and feeding tubes, continued disinfection of patient rooms, and providing supportive care for COVID-19 complications. 

 “FEMA is pleased to be able to assist Tufts Medical Center with these costs,” said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. “Reimbursing state, county, and municipal governments – as well as eligible non-profits and tribal entities – for the costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important part of our nation’s ongoing recovery.”

FEMA’s Public Assistance program is an essential source of funding for states and communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency.

So far, FEMA has provided more than $2.5 billion in Public Assistance grants to Massachusetts to reimburse the commonwealth for pandemic-related expenses.