Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Juan N. Babauta stressed yesterday that the Commonwealth Health Center needs to make \u201cvery fundamental\u201d changes, including letting go of the \u201cculture of being subsidized.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Rotary Club of Saipan membership meeting yesterday, Babauta pointed out that there is an \u201cingrained culture\u201d of being at work but without productivity among staffers at the island\u2019s lone hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that\u2019s the culture that has been ingrained in the last 30 years and that culture needs to change,\u201d Babauta told Rotarians and guests at the meeting held at the Giovanni\u2019s Restaurant of Hyatt Regency.<\/p>\n
Babauta warned that if this culture is perpetuated, \u201cwe\u2019re going to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder this new management, we must get rid of the status quo in order for us to be on the path of success,\u201d added Babauta.<\/p>\n
He disclosed that he has never been busier compared to his previous jobs, including that of being a governor, since assuming the CEO post of the newly established healthcare corporation in October. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s dynamic, it\u2019s ever-changing, there\u2019s a lot of issues involved every day…I have to deal with them directly, I have to make things happen and, hopefully, we can improve the delivery of health services here in the CNMI,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Babauta noted the diversity of the corporation, with the various programs it is engaged in. One of its major components is the CHC, which he described as 24\/7 operation that is \u201ctop-heavy,\u201d meaning it spends more on salary expenses. <\/p>\n
The hospital\u2019s budget, said Babauta, has seen a \u201cdramatic reduction\u201d in its annual budget, previously receiving around $43 million five or six years ago to just $5 million this fiscal year.<\/p>\n
A big bulk of its budget\u2014between 80 to 85 percent\u2014is allotted to fixed costs, which include personnel salaries and fringe benefits. The remaining 15 percent, said Babauta, goes to variable cost, which covers hospital supplies and other operational needs.<\/p>\n
Babauta disclosed that they collect between $400,000 to $500,000 a month, which is smaller than the biweekly payroll of $800,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see immediately that there is an imbalance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Babauta vowed to implement changes and cost-cutting measures at the hospital such as promoting accountability in supplies and equipment. For example, he said, many discharged patients sometimes keep wheelchairs and other materials that should remain at the hospital after the patients check out.<\/p>\n
He noted that doctors, who have the discretion to tell patients how long they can stay at the hospital, should also apply \u201cdue diligence\u201d to avoid unnecessary longer stays.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be mindful of the expense and revenue side of things because we\u2019re no longer connected to the umbilical cord of the government,\u201d said Babauta, adding that all physicians, nurses, and the rest of the staff should be engaged in these \u201ccost-containment\u201d efforts.<\/p>\n
Babauta also underscored the need to improve the hospital\u2019s collections and billing, which he said could \u201cmake or break\u201d it. He said about 50 percent of services delivered to patients are not being charged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a high percentage of services in the hospital that have not been charged ever since we built the hospital,\u201d said Babauta.<\/p>\n
He said the lack of data and statistics poses a \u201cgreat challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public health data and statistics are very weak, indicators are weak,\u201d he said, adding that availability of these figures can help the corporation increase its productivity level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Juan N. Babauta stressed yesterday that the Commonwealth Health Center needs to make \u201cvery fundamental\u201d changes, including letting go of the \u201cculture of being subsidized.\u201d<\/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-158379","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\/158379","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=158379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}