HELENA - It’s been five years since the COVID-19 pandemic, but like many healthcare organizations, Shodair Children’s Hospital says it’s still feeling the impacts.
Now, they’re receiving more than $2 million in federal funding to help them move forward.
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“I mean, we had to really operate on a very shoestring budget while everyone was dealing with COVID, so these monies would have been helpful three years ago, but we are going to take them now and continue doing what we always do,” said Shodair CEO Craig Aasved.
The pandemic disrupted Shodair’s bed availability and staffing. Aasved says they worked hard to avoid laying off employees, including having their administration take temporary pay cuts.
In 2023, Shodair applied for employee retention credits through the IRS, intended to help organizations that were impacted by COVID.
“Having these monies now are going to be very, very instrumental in doing what we do, and that’s taking care of kids in Montana," Aasved says.
Leaders say their application for the funds had been pending for almost two years.
They reached out to Congressman Troy Downing’s office for assistance and say they got the money approved about 50 days after he started looking into the issue.
“I am really happy we were able to get this win, a 2.3 million win for Shodair, which is obviously meaningful to continue the good work that they are doing," Downing says.
Downing delivered a check for the $2.3 million credits on Monday before touring the hospital and joining some of the youngest patients for art and music.
