Cleaning contractor cuts services at hospital

Due to the deep financial constraints of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., the areas that are usually cleaned by a private cleaning contractor at the Commonwealth Health Center has been reduced by half effective Feb. 14.

Healthcare corporation chief executive officer Juan N. Babauta confirmed this with the Saipan Tribune yesterday, saying that from a previous contract amount of about $400,000 a year, a new agreement inked with the firm slashed the fee to only $200,000 a year.

Sablan Topline Co. LLC has been the hospital’s cleaning contractor for many years.

Babauta said that because of the corporation’s continued financial challenges, they decided to reduce the areas being cleaned by the company “without sacrificing healthcare delivery” at the public hospital.

Saipan Tribune learned that effective last week, Sablan Topline was asked to stop cleaning specific areas, reducing its coverage by some 29,800 square feet.

Among the areas that are not covered under its new contract include the admitting and discharge office, billing office, business office, the children’s development assistance center, the hospital chapel, the continuing education room, the respiratory therapy training room, CT-Scan including transcription office, dental office, diabetic resource center, HIV/STI building, hospital administration, laboratory department, managers’ office, medical records, and the hospital morgue.

Last week, the company also stopped servicing the public health administration offices, radiology department, respiratory therapy, telemedicine conference room, and the medical referral office, including the hospital cafeteria.

The corporation was allocated only $5 million to operate the hospital this year.

Babauta described the services rendered by Topline as “excellent” and that the company has also been providing extra services without extra charges. According to him, Sablan Topline is a Medicare-certified vendor.

He pointed out, though, that without enough funds, they needed to cut costs.

He assured, however, that the reduction in Topline’s service will not in any way impact Medicare’s requirements because in-house personnel would be taking over the slack in areas that are not covered by the new contract.

“No impact at all [on Medicare requirements]…because their focus is in critical patient care areas. So as long as we meet that, we’re good and we’re doing that,” said Babauta.

He said that Topline is just one of the many vendors the corporation has outstanding arrears. He declined to disclose how much the corporation owes the company.