by John McLoone

A share of the Dakota County CARES Act money will be earmarked to help its hospitals that have lost revenue to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dakota County received a $52 million allotment from the CARES Act (Coronavirus Relief and Security) from the amount the federal government granted to the state of Minnesota. In addition to money helping county efforts and some being earmarked for business relief, the Dakota County Board received a plan at its special meeting last week to earmark funds to Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville and Regina Hospital in Hastings.

A county summary to the Board of Commissioners states: “Ridges Hospital has submitted a request for CARES Act funding to help cover pandemic-related costs to date as follows -Supply and equipment costs -Infrastructure costs -Training and education costs “Regina Hospital has submitted a request for CAREA Act funding to support the recovery from their loss of revenue and to assist with sustainability to continue to provide safe and effective healthcare to the communities they serve.”

A letter from Fairview Vice President Brian Knapp states, “The urgent actions that we took at Ridges to care for VOCID-19 patients have been critical in our ability successfully serve our community, but they have come at a cost.”

“Ridges Hospital received $4,890,597 in CAREA Act Provider Relief Funds out of the total $175 billion distributed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to hospitals and healthcare providers. This did help alleviate some of the early impact of VOVID-19. Unfortunately, during the months of March through June, Ridges lost an anticipated $23,706,236 in revenue because of the pandemic that, for instance, led patients to cancel or defer non time-sensitive surgeries and other procedures,” Knapp wrote.

Ridges is seeking $593,188 from Dakota County for the proportional market share of admissions to the hospital.

Regina’s request was for county support in the total of $2,981,406 “to support our recovery from this unprecedented loss of revenue and to assist with our sustainability to continue to provide safe and effective healthcare to the communities we serve,” a letter from Regina President Helen Strike states.

“The urgent actions Regina Hospital has taken since March 2020 to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing efforts required to prepare our medical community to care for COVID-19 patients and to provide excellent safe care for all our community have been unprecedented,” Strike wrote. Most impactful to Regina Hospital has been the unanticipated loss of revenue due to the extraordinary measures taken to ensure the safety of our communities and healthcare providers during COVID-19. To support the staff and physicians of Regina Hospital on our path to recovery, we are asking for county assistance where we have our greatest need.”

The board took no action on the requests last week.