The Palm Beach Post has revealed this has gone on for two years.

State sends TB patients to $35-a-night Jacksonville motel

The state paid the Monterey Motel in Jacksonville more than $11,000 to house tuberculosis patients. (GARY CORONADO/Palm Beach Post)



The low-rent coral and green motel on the outskirts of downtown doesn’t look like a haven for tuberculosis patients. But for at least two years, TB patients were routed by Duval County health officials to the Monterey Motel and told to stay put. Longtime motel resident Alfred Scott — who was treated for the lung disease more than 20 years ago — said he and other residents only were told of the TB patients when they saw people wearing masks coming and going on the motel walkways. ..."The man-and-woman team responsible for cleaning rooms, who spoke only limited English, appeared confused when asked whether they had taken precautions. In fact, Kevin Davis, a former manager with the Duval County Health Department’s TB unit, questioned whether hotel managers had been briefed fully about TB transmission or precautions for staff.

The rush to close Florida's only TB hospital six months before the planned time shows that Rick Scott's Florida only cares about the bottom line. Only here would they think to send contagious ill patients to a cheap motel.

Florida accused of covering up of the worst TB outbreak in 20 years

