So far the state has paid to hire more than 8,000 contract health care workers as hospitalizations from COVID-19 in Texas approach the record set last winter. Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, president and CEO of Harris Health System, said the hospitals in the system were at a breaking point when he learned that 100 temporary medical workers were being sent to help. As cases surged, the hospitals were admitting more children and pregnant women with complications from COVID-19, and patients who needed intensive care waited in emergency rooms for ICU beds to become available. The nurses, respiratory therapists and other contract staff “definitely arrived ...