NMI seen as nursing education hub in Pacific

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The Northern Marianas holds a bright potential in becoming the education and healthcare hub in the region—the islands being the American gateway in the Western Pacific rim, according to a California-based businesswoman.

Sedy Demesa, executive vice president of SNF Properties, Inc., emphasized the strong promise of the Commonwealth in becoming the Pacific hub of four key areas of healthcare-related businesses—hemodialysis centers, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and nursing education.

Demesa, who was one of the invited resource speakers in the recently-held business opportunities conference here that was sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior, made a pitch on the global shortage of nurses, particularly in the United States, as a major source of investment in the Northern Marianas.

She pointed out that, in partnership with the Northern Marianas College, private educational institutions could set up nursing schools in the CNMI, the graduates of which are seen to help alleviate the acute scarcity of healthcare workers within and outside the Commonwealth.

“The U.S. Department of Labor projects that the critical shortage of nurses is becoming to be the most challenging crisis faced by the healthcare industry,” she said, adding that one million new nurses will be needed in America alone in the next 20 years.

Demesa’s assessment of the CNMI’s potential as an education hub in the region was backed by US-DOI regional economist Wali Osman who also noted that education is one of the most important areas for future economic growth in the Northern Marianas.

“With the American-style and quality of education implemented in Guam and the CNMI, the islands can become the education center in the region,” Osman said.

Demesa, meanwhile, mentioned the Global Education Strategic Initiative, which aims to provide a flexible, accelerated nursing program, among other courses, “to produce quality nurses who can meet the demands within the CNMI, the U.S. and in various parts of the world.”

GESI, a brainchild of Gov. Juan N. Babauta and NMC president Tony Deleon Guerrero, seeks to attract foreign students, particularly Asians, to complete an accelerated nursing program that allows graduates of natural science courses to pursue nursing education at a relatively shorter period of time.

“And because the CNMI controls its own immigration laws, it would be easier for Asian students to travel to the islands to complete the program under this educational initiative. Healthcare businesses with demands for nursing staff are welcome to establish a connection with the Northern Marianas College to produce healthcare professionals or act as prospective employers of GESI graduates. The influx of students into the CNMI can also create specialty tourism that can be a business opportunity for most entities,” said Demesa, who co-owns 50 convalescent hospitals and 46 skilled nursing facilities that are subleased to other companies in California.

Besides nursing education, the California-based businesswoman also mentioned hemodialysis as a lucrative investment in the islands, noting that more than 50 percent of the Commonwealth’s indigenous population has diabetes or is prone to the disease.

While stressing that prevention is always better than treatment, Demesa explained that the current number of diabetics in the CNMI necessitates the setting up of more hemodialysis centers to avoid the very costly practice of flying many patients out of the islands for treatment.

“There are Asian Pacific islands like Japan that await the establishment of these facilities. Its close proximity to Asia makes CNMI a medical destination of the area due to its advantages on the costs of transportation, communication and marketing. The opportunity in specialty tourism is therefore enhanced,” she said.

Investors can also use the issue of medicines’ affordability on the islands as an important factor in weighing the potentials of a venture on the islands, according to Demesa, citing the high cost of medicine in the CNMI, which could be as high as 5,000 percent of the base compared with the continental U.S.

“This opens an opportunity for new businesses that will be able to find ways to procure medicine either directly or indirectly by consolidating the purchase of medicines with the purpose of bringing down the cost,” she said.

With telemedicine fast becoming an accepted practice in healthcare delivery, Demesa said a major improvement in the Commonwealth’s telecommunications system is also a concern. “The possible entry of new players would help bring down the telecom costs, thereby, making telemedicine more accessible.” (Aldwin R. Fajardo)