Small town girl with a big, big heart

A small town girl with a big heart is what best describes Dr. Norma S. Ada.

The New York-trained physician started her own private practice more than a year ago in her effort to uplift the standards of healthcare on Saipan and today marks the formal opening of her clinic, Medical Associates of the Pacific LLC.

Dr. Ada, who took up medicine at Tulane University after finishing her college degree at the University of Notre Dame, said that setting up her own private practice was an easy decision and a no-brainer following a seven-year stint at the Commonwealth Health Center.

The Mt. Carmel School graduate readily admits that there’s only so much one can do when one is part of a big system such as a government hospital.

“When you actually go to private practice, how the clinic functions is a reflection on you. You could deliver healthcare a lot more personably, efficiently, and not let people fall through the cracks. In healthcare you can’t afford to have what is called ‘lost to follow-up’ and have patients ‘fall through the cracks,’” she said.

Another pleasant offshoot of starting her own private practice is that Dr. Ada actually gets to implement her philosophy in delivering and improving healthcare.

She said Medical Associates of the Pacific is driven by three such principles.

“First, as a primary care physician—the doctor you go to who knows your family history—our emphasis is on primary preventive care services. Because without a very strong delivery of primary care preventive services you’re not going to get healthy families and my specialty—since I take care of kids and adults—allows me to take care of families,” she said.

Dr. Ada also wants her clinic to integrate primary preventive care services with the latest standards of care in medicine.

“On Saipan we have limited resources—physicians in the primary preventive care services, sub specialists, and advance technology. So we have set up a place available for sub specialists to come and see our patients because it’s a lot less expensive to bring in one person versus flying 10 or 20 people off-island,” she said.

Medical Associates of the Pacific’s third principle is in line with Dr. Ada’s mission of bringing Saipan and the CNMI to an acceptable level of health care.

“Let’s face it this is not going to be Los Angeles, Seattle, Las Vegas, or even Honolulu, but we want to bring a standard of healthcare that is within reason here on Saipan with our available resources and I think there’s still some ways to improve that. However, those improvements don’t only need skilled personnel but it also needs financial resources and we all know how the public sector has limited financial and manpower resources. I believe that’s where the private sector can help out and that’s one of the reasons I started my own private practice,” she said.

Dr. Ada also has never second-guessed her decision to come back home to Saipan and serve her island community.

“This is home, so it was an easy decision to come back. Ask anybody who comes from a small town or an area of great need. When you have the opportunity, especially the financial opportunity to study abroad, you would like to bring the knowledge and skills gained back to your home town,” she said.

Medical Associates of the Pacific is located at MH-II Bldg. Suite 101 Marina Heights Business Park and is open daily from Monday to Friday, from 8am to 5pm.