Council considers funding for CHRISTUS

The San Marcos City Council made plans to redirect American Rescue Plan funds to aid CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital-San Marcos.

The council would take $500,000 from other programs that are set to be funded from the ARP to provide support and funding for clinical staffing costs in San Marcos.

“This (COVID-19) surge is also being felt in our hospitals and that’s the reason that this item is moving forward,” City Manager Bert Lumbreras said. “The surge is directly affecting CHRISTUS in a variety of ways in terms of their capacity, their staffing and certainly their financial constraints. With this surge, they have to resort to a number of ways to obviously address the needs and they have to respond. They’re like all of us. They want to do the very best they can in treating their patients and deal with the criticalness of the issue.”

Thomas McKinney, president of CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital-San Marcos, updated the council on the hospital’s response to the current surge of COVID-19 cases.

“We are going to do everything in our power to obtain staff to put at the bedside of these patients,” McKinney said.

During Tuesday’s regular meeting, McKinney reported that there are a total of 41 COVID-19 patients at CHRISTUS with 15 patients on ventilators and 15 on high-flow oxygen. He added that all of CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital-San Marcos’s 10 ICU beds are all occupied by COVID-19 patients except for one. The hospital's ICU treatment has overflown to its progressive care unit.

“What our physicians and nurses are seeing is the acuity of the patients are getting sicker and sicker,” McKinney said. “And patients that definitely could be admitted and probably should be admitted, we’re saying, ‘you know what, you’re OK. We’re going to send you home and get you monitored closely. Come back to us if you feel worse.’ That is not what we’re used to as a hospital. But we are, from an ICU standpoint, at 180% of our ICU’s capacity.”

San Marcos has seen an exponential increase in COVID-19 cases since the beginning of July with 28 active cases on July 2 to 758 as of Friday.

McKinney said average nurses and doctors understand exactly what happened last January and they recognize it today.

“Quite frankly they’re exhausted because there’s no clear end in sight and we’re asking doctors and nurses to take a twice and three-times a normal pay slope,” he said.

The funding for the staffing will consist of deferred funds from different programs. $100,000 from the small business counseling program, $200,000 from the Briarwood and River Ridge SW project, $100,000 from Stormwater improvements at older facilities and $100,000 from the addressed flooding at the Hull/Grove intersection will be taken and replaced during the second round of funding from ARP.

The funding request is based on what CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital-San Marcos spent during July and August to ensure adequate staffing levels.

“I think CHRISTUS Health has done a great job of saying ‘We’re going to elevate the level of care here in San Marcos, but we’re also going to use our relationship with our children’s hospital to do the same in San Marcos’ and we’re committed to that,” McKinney said.

During the discussion, councilmembers voiced their concerns as well as their support for the funding being added to the

“I don’t know anything that’s more immediate COVID need than helping the hospital with their needs,” Mayor Jane Hughson said. “This is not going to be everything they need but it certainly can help.”

Ultimately, the council voted to discuss the deferment of the funding at a later date. The item is set to be added to the next meeting agenda and will be presented again at a special meeting.