Hospital accepting patients with special needs

With recovery efforts still ongoing on Saipan and despite the high number of patients it already has, the Commonwealth Health Center has still been accepting patients with special needs.

With the high needs of those that require special medical attention, there is room for them at the hospital, according to Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther Muña.

She said they are mandated to accommodate patients who require a power source for their medical equipment.

The hospital is now back on the power grid of the Commonwealth utilities Corp.

Majority of special needs patients who lost their homes require a power source for their medical equipment such as oxygen generators.

While a power source was not readily available after the typhoon, the hospital still accepted them and housed them during the first week of the disaster.

“We’re taking them in because of their dependency on power source for their medical equipment,” said Warren Villagomez, CHCC public health and hospital emergency preparedness program director. “We’re tailoring areas to accommodate them and it is part of our goal.

He assured that the hospital continues to reach out to the community One example was the recent storm when “we reached out to pregnant women to come in and we are still sending messages to potential patients that may face threats from the environment that require medical equipment.”

There are about 16 special needs patients at the hospital, most of whom require oxygen.

The hospital’s wards are maxed out as of Tuesday, Aug. 18, with the hospital census at 74.

“We have a plan that we haven’t activated yet but we are steadily going through that and we are going beyond the actual number of capacities at the hospital. We can open an area and shift it,” Villagomez said.

“We haven’t utilized the new building and dialysis is maintained and there isn’t any flux in the numbers at the dialysis but they do have general admissions,” he added.

For special need patients at home, the hospital doesn’t provide homecare and they need to check themselves in or by a family member.

The CHCC encourages anyone who is sick to seek medical care.

“We want to respond to the devastation of Typhoon Soudelor by making sure that we are even stronger and even better prepared in the future. The enhanced early warning alert and response system is one of many examples of how we are committed to protecting children, families, and communities of the CNMI, ” Muña said.