CNMI working to acquire its own MRI unit

The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. says it is working right now on obtaining new hospital equipment, including a new Magnetic Resonance Imaging unit that is used to take detailed pictures inside the human body to help diagnose or monitor treatment.

CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muña said during a recent news briefing that building new facilities at the hospital as well as expanding existing once is in the works. “We’re working with the Governor’s Office on that. The only challenge, of course, is that it will take a lot more time,” she said.

However, the project is still in its planning phase so CHCC has yet to determine when the project will start and when it would be completed. Because it is such a large-scale project, Muña said that CHCC will prioritize certain areas first. The focus for now will be to expand the CHCC operating room, add more suites, expand the intensive care unit, add a multi-level parking structure, expand the existing dietary unit and, most importantly, building a place to house an MRI.

“This is an investment in public health. We’re planning on placing an MRI unit across the street so it is still close to the hospital. We definitely need an MRI. Obviously, diabetes, hypertension, [and] cardiovascular illnesses are some of our top cases here in the CNMI and we need to be able to diagnose early and treat early, so an MRI is definitely necessary. Even with oncology, we have seen that there’s a definite need for the MRI,” she said.

Muña explained that CHCC and the CNMI administration is determined to upgrade the hospital as it is over 30-year-old and can no longer accommodate a population of over 50,000.

“The facility is over 30 years old and, at the time it was built, we had a population of about 15,000, so at this point in time, to have four ICU units just doesn’t make sense. We’re talking about a 76-bed hospital. With this population of 50,000 it’s inadequate, it’s insufficient. You need to be able to have more, and when we have patients waiting in the ER, for example, waiting for a bed, you know that that shouldn’t be happening,” she said.

Meanwhile, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said it is the administration’s priority to get this project off the ground for the sake of public health.

“It is a priority of the CEO and this administration to prioritize our healthcare. My administration will definitely be prioritizing the need to expand our hospital, whether it’s the emergency room, operating rooms, ICU, or the new building we want to build to house the MRI and CT scan as well as the hyperbaric chamber. We are working hard to meet the request on the need for the expansion,” he said.