A Nashville hospital has had an emergency of its own, and has asked the city to bail it out. Metro General Hospital leaders said they need money to help make payroll and pay bills.
Metro General has asked the Metro council for a one-time addition of $10 million on top of the $35 million subsidy the hospital gets from Metro government every year.
In a joint committee meeting city budget and hospital leaders debated the emergency request Monday night.
Metro General leaders say the money would go toward changes that were needed after an inspection last year noted that the hospital had "serious deficiencies" in patient safety and infection control.
The hospital said it has also been having trouble paying their bills on time, and some of the money would go toward that.
However, the most pressing concern the hospital leadership said, was the ability to make payroll this Friday.
“It's very imminent, we do have a payroll coming up on the 5th and it would put us in a situation where the vendors don't get paid as quickly again, and it just escalates the problem,” said Pamela Gallagher, the CFO of Metro General Hospital.
The full Metro Council still has to give the final go-ahead for the plan at their meeting Tuesday.
