Hawaii hospitals to get much-needed help with more than 500 mainland medical workers

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Hawaii hospitals will soon receive some much-needed help as more than 500 health care workers from the mainland arrive in the state.

It comes as hospitals deal with an overwhelming number of COVID patients amid the spread of the delta variant, resulting in some ICUs at or above capacity.

State officials announced Wednesday that they have secured the $46 million in federal funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to bring in the traveling medical workers from ProLink Healthcare.

Forty-six workers were already deployed to Hilo Medical Center and Kona Community Hospital on Hawaii Island over the weekend.

The rest of the staff are expected to arrive in the islands and be deployed to 19 hospitals statewide over the next three weeks. Each staff member will work for eight weeks.

The majority of the positions are nurses, but some include medical technicians, behavioral health clinicians and other health care professionals.

This is the second time during the coronavirus pandemic that Hawaii brought in help from the mainland.

Last September, the state brought in hundreds of health care workers using federal CARES Act funding.

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