FEMA Awards Over $5.5 Million to Lowell General Hospital for COVID Staffing, Administrative Costs

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending more than $5.5 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse Lowell General Hospital for the cost of hiring temporary nursing staff and some administrative costs incurred responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The $5,515,683 in Public Assistance grants will reimburse the hospital – part of the Tufts Medicine health system – for the cost of contracting with two companies for additional nursing staff, and for costs associated with administering FEMA grants that it received.

One grant of $2,126,750 will pay back the costs of Medical Solutions providing 51 staff who worked a total of 10,645 hours and Vital Contingent Planning providing 21 staff who worked a total of 6,360 hours between December 2022 and May 2023. 

A second grant of $3,388,933 will reimburse Lowell General Hospital for the direct and indirect administrative costs of activities like tracking and accounting for items related to FEMA grants awarded for pandemic-related expenses. The administrative costs are calculated as a percentage of the grants provided to the hospital.

“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist Lowell General Hospital 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 $2.8 billion in Public Assistance grants to Massachusetts to reimburse the commonwealth for pandemic-related expenses.