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‘CHC operations after Soudelor is proof of sustainability’
Facilities at the CNMI’s lone public hospital, Commonwealth Health Center, have undergone great improvement since they were first inspected by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, according to Warren Villagomez.
Villagomez, who is facilities director of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. that runs the hospital, said that great improvements have been made since CHC was first inspected.
“As the facility director, I thank the CHCC management for the support to meet the conditions of participations of CMS with regards to facilities,” he said.
Villagomez, who is also the director for public health and hospital preparedness, cited the hospital’s continuous operation after Typhoon Soudelor as an example.
“Even with Typhoon Soudelor, we were able to maintain operation and maintaining operations after a major typhoon is something that is very critical for us in regards to the standards and the level of service that we provide,” Villagomez said.
He said they were able to utilize their backup generator throughout the response period and after the storm.
“That just proves that our facilities are sustainable,” he said.
Among the various CMS citations that the hospital received rerlating to facilities are requirements that either need some improvement, tweaking of plans, as well as updating of plans, according to Villagomez.
“But that does not mean that we’re under standard,” he added.
One area that they continue to work on is their heat, ventilation, and air conditioning system.
“The HVAC project is ongoing. That should be completed in about a month’s time. We should be closing up our contract with the contractor a month or two from now,” Villagomez said.
The HVAC system covers the entire old building, Building A.
He added that some fine-tuning and tweaking are needed but their contractor would soon finish and hand over the project to them.
Other hospital upgrades are the elevators. Villagomez said the south elevator has been working and they are now working with the north elevator. They also set up policies and standard operating procedures in line with the fire code and safety.
