CHRISTIANSTED — Governor Albert Bryan has issued an executive order declaring a state of public exigency for the Governor Juan F. Luis Hospital & Medical Center.
Following Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, the hospital was heavily damaged due to substantial water intrusion and physical damage to its facilities.
This damage resulted in a significant reduction in the capacity of the organization to include: (a) complete closure of the third floor, which housed JFL’s medical and surgical units; (b) a reduction in Operating Room (OR) services, from three ORs to one OR; and (c) a reduction in bed capacity, from 80 inpatient beds to 46. In addition, there was also a loss of outpatient Dialysis and Interventional Cardiology services.
A modular hospital was procured by the prior hospital administration. In December 2017, the furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) was removed from FEMA’s initial project worksheets prior to the appointment of the current Executive Team, which caused a critical delay in the procurement of FF&E required for the operation of the planned temporary modular hospital.
JFL’s current Executive Team, led by Acting CEO Dyma B. Williams, has worked closely with the Office of Disaster Recovery to outfit the modular hospital with the necessary furnishings and medical equipment to ensure the temporary modular hospital can begin operations by the scheduled May 2020 opening date.
The public exigency declaration was issued to help JFL expedite the procurement process and complete emergency repairs in the Intensive Care Unit in order to reopen the ICU as soon as possible.
Recently, Governor Bryan visited the Governor Juan F. Luis Hospital and toured the facility. During his visit, he stated that “The territory’s hospitals are a top priority for our administration in this recovery. We are continuing our work with the current leadership of both our hospitals to ensure that we have facilities that are able to appropriately provide for the health needs of the residents while we work on a long term solution to improve healthcare in the territory,” the Governor added.
“As an executive team, our focus is to restore critical healthcare in the territory,” Acting CEO Dyma Williams said Thursday. “We are eager to begin the construction of the community’s new hospital and creating hundreds of healthcare jobs and positive economic development in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the meantime, we strive to maintain safe patient care in the current JFL facility. We thank Governor Bryan for supporting the efforts of the JFL Team.”
