A seven-member team from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is on island for a surprise visit to the Commonwealth Health Center and Hemodialysis Center.<\/p>\n
Department of Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez was seen meeting with the Medicate representatives yesterday at his office. <\/p>\n
While he confirmed the team\u2019s visit, Villagomez didn\u2019t disclose other details of their activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, they\u2019re here and they\u2019re doing a thorough checking on everything,\u201d he said in a short interview.<\/p>\n
Villagomez would not say how long the team will be on island and refused to comment on the team\u2019s initial observations.<\/p>\n
The team arrived on Monday and immediately met with Health Department officials and staff.<\/p>\n
In January 2010, Medicare received a complaint about the hospital\u2019s services, prompting them to conduct an investigation. The federal agency found serious deficiencies in the hospital\u2019s services and threatened to terminate its \u201cprovider agreement\u201d if corrective actions are not taken. CHC was also placed on a severe status of \u201cjeopardy.\u201d <\/p>\n
The 112-page Statement of Deficiencies particularly took issue with the hospital\u2019s nursing services, citing six concerns involving its governing body, quality assessment and performance improvement, medical staff, nursing services, radiologic services, and infection control.<\/p>\n
CHC later submitted plans to Medicare on how it intends to resolve all deficiencies found during the investigation survey. This week\u2019s inspection aims to validate these \u201ccorrective plans.\u201d <\/p>\n
Gayline Blau, the hospital\u2019s acting nursing director, told Saipan Tribune yesterday that she met the Medicare team on Monday and accompanied them to areas and sections that they wanted to inspect.<\/p>\n
Blau said the inspection is not yet finished and she can\u2019t say if there will be an exit interview later. <\/p>\n
As of yesterday, CHC has 174 nursing staff, Blau said, of which 124 are registered nurses; the rest are nursing assistants, midwives, and licensed practical nurses.<\/p>\n
Health Department officials earlier told Saipan Tribune that majority of the deficiencies uncovered at the hospital was a result of the government\u2019s budget constraints, which has resulted in the unavailability of needed supplies and services. <\/p>\n
The inadequate budget is also preventing the hospital from filling key positions that have been vacant for many years now.<\/p>\n
CHC receives from $8 million to $10 million in reimbursements from Medicare every year.<\/p>\n
On July 21, the Fitial administration declared a state of emergency at the hospital, including Rota and Tinian health centers, due to the lack of supplies and services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A seven-member team from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is on island for a surprise visit to the Commonwealth Health Center and Hemodialysis Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}