CW-1 cap prevents the hospital from hiring more nurses

The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. was supposed to hire more nurses from the Philippines to fill vacancies but was prevented from doing so after the fiscal year 2017’s numerical limit of the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker Nonimmigrant visa program was breached last week.

A total of 31 nurses were affected by the CW-1 cap, with most of them going to be renewed either in April or July next year. Five other CHCC staff were also capped out, with two each from the quality assurance and radiology departments and one from laboratory.

Renea D. Rajo, acting director of nursing at the Commonwealth Healthcare Center, said the potential new nurses could have plugged the shortage the CNMI’s lone hospital is experiencing.

“There is already a shortage as it is, which is true anywhere else in healthcare settings in the world,” said Rajo. “We were supposed to hire nine more nurses from the Philippines then the news from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services came out that the cap has been reached.”

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, who returned from a recent trip to attend the GOP’s Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Advisory Committee meeting in Las Vegas, and Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) were one in saying the hospital’s operations could not be disrupted.

“I will be meeting with [Delegate] Kilili to discuss a lot of things regarding the CW-1 issue and the status of the hospital is one of them,” said Torres in yesterday’s groundbreaking of the soccer pitch in Koblerville.

In an earlier interview, Sablan said: “I am very concerned about how the cut-off in CW-1 permit renewals this fiscal year might affect our hospital and other critical services.”

Rajo, who began working at the hospital in 2005 but left in 2011, said they have been experiencing a relatively high number of patients at the hospital, with the island’s population increasing and tourist arrivals.

“Census has been relatively high consistently, because population on the island has tremendously increased because of tourism, and that includes tourists giving births in CHC, and also people are getting sicker.”

Contingency plan

Rajo said that CHCC, behind chief executive officer Esther L. Muna, MHA, already has a contingency plan in place. “We have been meeting almost everyday this past week exploring our options.”

“Options on how we can apply our nurses and auxiliary staff to other visas applicable to their credential aside from just CW. We have also consulted an immigration lawyer from Guam,” added Rajo, who returned to CHCC in 2013.

They have also sought the help of Sablan. “We have reached out to [Delegate] Kilili’s office for our staff that will be affected prior to next fiscal year,” said Rajo, who is also the Continuing Education nurse coordinator.