CHCC set to restructure nurses, other staff’s salary

Nurses and other staff at the hospital will be seeing a change in their salaries in order for the Commonwealth Health Center to be more competitive in attracting healthcare professionals, according to Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther Muna.

She said that the main focus in restructuring the salary of hospital staff will help in keeping the hospital’s nurses and also attract many of the nursing students under the Northern Marianas College.

An informational meeting will be held on July 16 to gather input from the hospital’s nurses. Muna says that it will help provide input from the nurses before any “number” is determined.

“We want to maintain our good nurses and for us to come to a certain point in retaining [them],” Muna said.

It costs the hospital much more to hire new nurses than retaining them.

“We already took away the housing and now we are paying for FICA recently…we’ve made a financial management decision on this matter and it is necessary. It will be more affordable to us and also will be more comfortable to the nurses,” Muna said.

This not only includes the nurses under the CHC, but also the Tinian and Rota health centers as well, according to Muna.

“The meeting is basically an input. We’re there to listen and we’ll be the one to hear from them and not us to them,” she said.

According to Muna, CHCC right now pays nurses between $24,000 and $40,000 per annum, while the Guam Memorial Hospital pays more than $40,000.

“Earlier we issued out a request for proposal rather to get bids for an interested company that would like to manage the restructuring of the hospital’s salary. It isn’t only for the nurses but also for the staff. We didn’t get any bids, so now we’re on our own and we think that the hospital needs to make the salary competitive,” Muna said.

“We want to keep, train, and address the nurses salary and the staff shortage. This goes with every department. This is just one of the questions on what we do to make sure they stay,” she added.

Aside from the nurses, Muna said that hospital staff are also in line for salary restructuring.

“I don’t have exact figures yet for the nursing salary restructuring and will do it after the informational meeting,” Muna said.