CHCC board reaffirms Muña as CEO

The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. board voted yesterday to reaffirm Esther L. Muña as the corporation’s chief executive officer, with board chair Lauri Ogumoro saying they would work closely with her in addressing areas where they deem it necessary for her to improve.

The board voted 3-1 to reaffirm Muña’s role in CHCC during yesterday’s board meeting at the Administration Office’s conference room.

Ogumoro, Saipan’s David Rosario, and Tinian representative William Cing, via phone patch, voted to reaffirm Muña to retain her post. Dr. Larry Hocog of Rota was absent.

Letitia Reyes, the third representative from Saipan and CHC’s former nursing director, was the lone member who opposed Muña’s reappointment. “I have no further comment. In my case, my vote is performance based,” she said.

Hocog made the motion to approve the board’s evaluation and to affirm Muña’s re-appointment based on their assessment.

Ogumoro said this was the first time that Muña was evaluated by a board. “We’ve completed the evaluation process and we agreed that she’s doing her job. This is the first time we did it.”

“This is the first time to have a board of trustees and we have to do an evaluation. It’s an annual process. This kind of sets the foundation for it. We voted to reaffirm her and she retains her position. Every year, just like all of us [CHCC board] we get evaluated.”

Ogumoro said that most board members agreed that Muña has been working hard in addressing critical areas of the CNMI’s lone hospital. “But, there’s always room for improvement and our job now is to put together the areas that we see where she can improve.”

“Then we will work with her on those deficiencies. I think that she’ll take it as constructive criticism, so that she can raise her score in the evaluation next time,” added Ogumoro, who is also the Karidat Social Services executive director.

She said that Muña meets most expectations based on the score she got from the American Hospital Association. “What I’ll do is to talk to her first about that [performance evaluation].”

Backed by hospital staff

Doctors, nurses, directors, administrators, and other personnel showed their overwhelming support for Muña’s leadership. A cafeteria staffer even said they are now making money—a source of additional revenue for the hospital.

“You’ve heard the overwhelming support that she [Muña] had from the staff. She’s been able to accomplish a lot. She has strengths and she has weaknesses. Just like all of us,” said Ogumoro. “The challenges she had are great. Running the hospital despite the minimal financial support that she gets and overwhelming uncompensated care cost.”