As a sign of appreciation for their hard work and commitment, thousands of employees at a hospital in the epicenter of America’s fight against the coronavirus will receive free vacations–though it’s really hard to call those vacations “free” considering all that these health workers have been through.
More than 4,000 staff members — including doctors, physician assistants, nurses, and facilities and foodservice teams — at New York City’s hard-hit Elmhurst Hospital have been surprised with a free three-night vacation, Hyatt and American Airlines announced recently.
The two companies teamed up to treat the frontline workers with free round trip flights on American Airlines to Hyatt hotels in select destinations across the US and Caribbean “to help them recharge and reconnect with their loved ones” once they are able to.
NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, a public hospital in Queens, serves about 1 million people per year in a socio-economically diverse area. Since the moment the pandemic took hold of New York City, the hospital has increased its ICU capacity by 500%, with its staff working in overdrive to overcome the staggering number of coronavirus cases.
