Michigan’s healthcare industry is looking for a bailout as financial pressures mount and hospital beds continue to fill up with children infected with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
John Karasinski, communications director for industry group Lansing, told Crain in an email.
The state has $750 million in unallocated ARPA funding and about $3 billion in a budget surplus in the general fund.
“We are pursuing potential additional funding through the state legislature to further address these needs, particularly as our children’s hospitals are under capacity strain. due to limited staffing and a large number of children visiting the emergency department with respiratory illness,” Karasinski said in an email. statement.
Hospitals are facing a huge increase in RSV in young children and are running out of beds for them.
On Thursday, the University of Michigan’s CS Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor sent out a statement urging parents to speak with their child’s primary care physician before taking them to the emergency room. The hospital says its pediatric beds are 100% full, with the number of treated RSV infections increasing by 46% in 2021.
The hospital said in a press release it said the increase has resulted in children being admitted to the emergency room for problems unrelated to RSV.
Download the Modern Healthcare app to stay up to date with industry news.
Two weeks ago, Corewell Health East, formerly Beaumont Health, said eight of its hospitals were also running low on hospital beds. The system quickly transferred adult ICU beds to children with RSV.
A spokesperson for Corewell Health East said in an email: “Many health systems across the country will benefit from receiving ARPA funding to help offset industry-wide financial challenges caused by pandemic, pressures and pressures. labor and inflation. “We are working with the MHA and other health systems to explore opportunities to receive ARPA funds.”
