In addition to approving medical staff for the territory’s hospitals, the V.I. Government Hospital and Health Facilities Corporation Territorial Board approved over $1 million of FEMA funding to rebuild the territory’s health care facilities at its monthly meeting Wednesday.
The majority of the funding was designated for building the Charlotte Kimmelman Cancer Center on St. Thomas. The expenditures were first evaluated by the Finance Committee at a separate meeting and presented to the full board by Dr. Jerry Smith, committee chair, and Darryl Smalls, territorial executive director of rebuilding the territory’s hospitals. Each expense was voted on and approved by the full board Wednesday.
The Finance Committee recommended a change order for work, labor, equipment and materials for the HVAC system at Kimmelman not to exceed $1.4 million, which increases the total cost of rebuilding to $30.6 million. The change order does not increase the time of the contract with J. Benton Construction.
An amendment to the contract with PAGE increases the cost by almost $650,000 for furniture, signage, PET CT imaging equipment upgrades, design for a chilled water system and other projects. According to Smalls, no time will be added to the contract for PAGE’s architectural and engineering work.
The smallest amount the board discussed and approved was a time extension of almost two months and an additional $17,285 to Flad A&E LLC for the permits and office expenses for the Juan F. Luis Medical Center’s hemodialysis outpatient clinic.
JFL’s Interim Chief Executive Officer Hazel Philbert said the hospital continues to focus on staffing, quality service, finances, and a volunteer program. Last month, 10 volunteers were recruited from two high schools and students from Free Will Baptist Christian School and Church of God Holiness Academy were hosted at the hospital.
She also said an application has been submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to expand and relocate dialysis services.
“The recently approved appropriation of one million dollars will be required to support three-month funding needs for supplies, medications, and staffing for these services,” she said.
Philbert reported that eight graduate nurses from the University of the Virgin Islands passed the national exam and were hired by JFL.
Also during the meeting, eight medical staff were approved for initial or additional terms working at JFL on St. Croix and nine physicians and other health care workers for the Schneider Regional Medical Center on St. Thomas.
At the beginning of the meeting, Board Chair Christopher Finch congratulated SRMC on the opening of the dialysis center and JFL for passing a Joint Commission reaccreditation survey. He was told that the CEO Board Selection Committee had narrowed the field of applicants to five for JFL’s next chief executive officer.
