Justice administration, West Virginia hospitals meet to develop ‘Saving Our Care’ methodology

(The Center Square) – Members of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s administration met with hospitals and nursing homes to develop a methodology for the “Saving Our Care” initiative designed to ensure the stability of the healthcare system.

“We had a meeting with hospital folks last week and sorted out a methodology so we can be sure we’re eliminating any overlap of funding,” Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Bill Crouch said in a statement.

“DHHR will provide support, covering some of the hospitals’ additional costs and staff hired through staffing agencies, overtime for existing staff, and some of the retention efforts that hospitals have entered into to try to keep the staff that they have,” Crouch said.I” want to thank all the hospitals who have struggled throughout this pandemic, and the hospital staff who have consistently, as the Governor says, run to the fire for 583 days now.”

The initiative, which Justice announced when cases and hospitalizations were surging, will provide hospitals and long-term care facilities with staffing help and financial assistance to increase workforce levels and ensure they do not need to defer elective procedures. The state will also monitor the status of these health care facilities and continue to communicate with hospital leaders.

“I truly am humbled just to think about all the great work that the people in our hospitals have done,” Justice said in a statement. “All the folks that have gone right into the fire, every single day, to protect and look after each and every one of us, the stuff they’ve done is unbelievable. I say thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

The state reached its highest point in COVID-19 hospitalizations, ICU patients and use of ventilators last month, but the numbers have declined in recent weeks.

West Virginia had 11,629 active COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, which is down about 60% from its peak, which reached more than 29,740 cases. The state had 870 hospitalizations as of Thursday, which is a 14% decrease from its peak of 1,012, 255 ICU patients, which is down nearly 14% from its peak of 296 and 176 patients on ventilators, which is down 9.7% from its peak of 195.

The state has continued to have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

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