He expressed frustration with the “bureaucracy and the inefficiency” of the CNMI government system that is “putting patient’s care in severe risk.”
When Raho’s contract ended on Aug. 8, the hospital was left with only one U.S.-licensed pharmacist who could prepare total parenteral nutrition, or TPN, given to newborn infants in the nursery.
Due to lack of a U.S.-licensed pharmacist during weekends, the in-patient pharmacy had to prepare the TPN on Fridays that would be used on Saturdays and Sundays.
Raho said this is not the standard care especially for newborn babies whose medical status is very unstable.
The TPN, he said, may need “adjustments” during the period when no pharmacist is around.
Besides nursery patients care, pharmacists also have to fulfill the requirements of Medicare certification and prescribe chemotherapy medicines.
Lorraine Liwiski, CHC’s other U.S.-licensed pharmacist, is leaving the hospital on Oct. 8.
Raho said he was given only 30 days to work at the hospital following the governor’s emergency declaration.
Raho said after 30 days, the hospital may no longer have a U.S.-licensed pharmacist.
Raho has been with CHC for 12 years, but had to stop working for the hospital last year because the governor did not renew his contract which ended on Sept. 30, 2007.
But he was allowed to remain at his post until the end of the year.
He continued working as a “volunteer” from January to Feb. 2008.
He was given a new contract in March while the Legislature considered changes to the salary cap law to allow him to continue working at CHC.
But the governor vetoed the bill and Raho’s contract ended in August.
Raho said he understands that the administration needs to follow the law, “but they also need to address this matter in a realistic way.”
“Our elected officials have a responsibility to provide services to the people, and we’re talking about healthcare here — it’s a matter of life and death,” he said.
He added that the Department of Public Health has been “doing everything but their moves are limited by the government’s inefficient system.”
According to Raho, “It’s a bit silly that hospital patients, particularly newborn infants, are being risked due to the fact that there is something in the law that has to be fixed.”
