Press Releases
Hospital Working With FEMA on Construction Grants
Posted on Monday, September 16th, 2024
Scott Callender, MBA, CPA
Hospital Administrator
(September 16, 2024) Five months after a powerful tornado struck Mercy Health Love County Hospital, demolition projects have begun, and the path to a new hospital is beginning to take shape.
Hospital Administrator Scott Callender, MBA, CPA, has been working closely with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to line up support. FEMA is charged with providing relief to healthcare organizations via direct reimbursement for expenses and damages stemming from a disaster.
“These are tax-payer dollars that FEMA is spending so we have to understand that following FEMA directives and timelines is our responsibility,” Callender said. “If we want the federal dollars we have to wait for the go-ahead on debris removal, demolition, and reconstruction. We can’t get ahead of ourselves.”
Hospital insurance funds paid the demolition costs for the first two buildings taken down: EMS Station 1, and the food pantry. The damaged buildings were dismantled down to their foundations September 11-14. The services from those buildings are temporarily located elsewhere. The main hospital building also will be demolished.
The intent is to build a new hospital on the same site and connect to the clinic building. That is because the “rural health” licensure of the clinic, which is intact and operating now, requires it to be connected or within a few feet of a hospital.
Next door to the clinic, the Therapy Building also is...
