Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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Before shutting down the medical facility at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center last month, Louisiana’s government shelled out more than $400,000 for each patient that arrived at the facility since April, representing about half of the total amount spent by the governor’s emergency division responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
The high price tag was partly the result of severe overestimations of how many patients would use the facility, something on which government health officials say they are glad to have missed the mark. Four hundred sixteen patients wound up at the “step-down” facility from April to November. On most days only a handful were staying there.
In all, Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration spent about $178 million to establish and run the facility as a safety valve of sorts for New Orleans hospitals that were on track to be overrun by COVID-19 patients, according to documents obtained through a public records request. That was a little more than half the $342.2 million in total spending from the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency preparedness on the pandemic.
The money spent on the Convention Center project flowed to private contractors who landed the deals through a quick emergency bid process in the spring to provide staffing, construction, laundry services, meals and “mass fatality services” for the facility.
www.theadvocate.com
On the one hand, I'm sure they moved as fast as they could to put together a plan to accommodate the guesstimate of folks coming.
On the other hand.................two of the "consultants" makes it a bit shady.
On the one hand 'tho, I'm sure the state was all........"Hey, you know us, baby. We need crap and you have that crap. Who loves ya?"
The high price tag was partly the result of severe overestimations of how many patients would use the facility, something on which government health officials say they are glad to have missed the mark. Four hundred sixteen patients wound up at the “step-down” facility from April to November. On most days only a handful were staying there.
In all, Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration spent about $178 million to establish and run the facility as a safety valve of sorts for New Orleans hospitals that were on track to be overrun by COVID-19 patients, according to documents obtained through a public records request. That was a little more than half the $342.2 million in total spending from the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency preparedness on the pandemic.
The money spent on the Convention Center project flowed to private contractors who landed the deals through a quick emergency bid process in the spring to provide staffing, construction, laundry services, meals and “mass fatality services” for the facility.
Louisiana's coronavirus fund spending: $178M to private contractors at New Orleans convention center
Before shutting down the medical facility at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center last month, Louisiana’s government shelled out more than $400,000 for each patient that arrived at the facility
On the one hand, I'm sure they moved as fast as they could to put together a plan to accommodate the guesstimate of folks coming.
On the other hand.................two of the "consultants" makes it a bit shady.
On the one hand 'tho, I'm sure the state was all........"Hey, you know us, baby. We need crap and you have that crap. Who loves ya?"
