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4.01 4.1 SUPPORT\\Glens Falls Hospital – Costs of COVID-19- 5-18-2020 RESOLUTION SUPPORTING GLENS FALLS HOSPITAL AND ENDORSING ITS EFFORTS TO OBTAIN REIMBURSEMENT TO OFFSET COSTS RELATED TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC RESOLUTION NO.: ___________________________________________________, 2020 INTRODUCED BY: ____________________________________________________ WHO MOVED ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: ______________________________________________________ WHEREAS, Glens Falls Hospital, a non-profit community institution, provides essential health care services for the Town of Queensbury, Warren County and four (4) surrounding counties, and WHEREAS, Glens Falls Hospital employs many Town of Queensbury residents and is the largest employer in Warren, Washington, Hamilton and Essex Counties, and WHEREAS, Glens Falls Hospital has been experiencing major financial challenges due to insufficient federal and state reimbursement programs and declines in patient volume, and WHEREAS, Glens Falls Hospital is vitally important to the health of thousands of full- time residents and the many thousands of people who visit Queensbury, Lake George and the North Country throughout the year, and WHEREAS, Glens Falls Hospital has led a coordinated regional response to the COVID- 19 Pandemic, treating 40 COVID-19 positive patients and setting up and administering community testing sites at the Hospital and at the Warren County Municipal Center at which hundreds people were tested, reactivating closed Hospital units to accept the expected surge of patients, converting anesthesia machines to ventilators, building a UVC sterilization room to sterilize N95 masks, putting 3-D printers to work making face shields, acquiring new laboratory equipment to allow rapid testing for COVID-19, providing constant community information and education about the Pandemic, and investing more than $5 million in these efforts, and WHEREAS, at the same time the Hospital set up telemedicine services to serve non- COVID-19 patients who could not visit the Hospital or see their medical providers because of COVID-19 restrictions and quickly began conducting 1,200 telemedicine visits a week, and WHEREAS, the Hospital was forced to bear a revenue loss of approximately $27 million because of the ban on elective procedures, only recently lifted, while also bearing the actual costs of preparing for the expected surge in COVID-19 patients after having already sustained operating losses of $1.6 million in January, $3 million operating in February, and an estimated $6 million in March, and as a result of the financial pressure was forced to furlough more than 360 employees, and WHEREAS, Glens Falls Hospital is an indispensable institution that is vitally important to the health, wellbeing, economy and future of the Town of Queensbury and the North Country region, NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Queensbury Town Board, on behalf of the residents, visitors and taxpayers of the Town of Queensbury hereby expresses its support and sincere appreciation to Glens Falls Hospital, its physicians and nurses and staff of dedicated employees, many of whom live in the Town of Queensbury, and BE IT FURTHER, RESOLVED that the Town Board hereby endorses Glens Falls Hospital’s ongoing efforts to obtain federal and state reimbursement to offset the costs it has borne in connection with the COVID-19 Pandemic and hereby implores the Town’s federal and state representatives to use their best efforts to secure federal and state funding to reimburse Glens Falls Hospital, and BE IT FURTHER, RESOLVED, that the Town Board authorizes and directs the Town Supervisor to send certified copies of this Resolution to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Congress Member Elise Stefanik and Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand and take such other and further actions as may be necessary to effectuate the terms of this Resolution. th Duly adopted this 18 day of May, 2020 by the following vote: AYES : NOES : ABSENT: