HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The Guam Memorial Hospital Authority Obstetrics-Gynecology Ward, the Skilled Nursing Facility and the hospital facility’s deteriorating envelope will soon see some much-needed improvement, according to GMH’s facilities and maintenance manager.
During the GMHA board of trustees meeting last week, Dr. Dustin Prins, acting hospital administrator, said, “We just got the permit from the Department of Public Works, so that is exciting. It’s good news.”
Zaldy Tugade, GMHA facilities and maintenance manager, confirmed that the permits were received and stated what will be required of the contractor, “The project schedule (and) schedule of values as well as the letter for extension because of the delay in the release of the permits,” said Tugade.
“We are looking at 45 days to complete, barring any difficulty in the logistics of their off-island material that will delay the completion of that project,” he added.
While the contractor waits for the off-island materials to arrive, on-site work will start Tuesday.
GMHA also anticipates a power upgrade for containers at the Skilled Nursing Facility, funded under the Alternate Care Facility budget, to be complete in 45 days.
“Soon as we get all those covered, we’ll be able to decongest the areas in SNF,” Tugade said.
The LOX, or Liquid Oxygen Shelter, upgrade is 98% completed, he said.
“We are just awaiting Public Works to do their … inspection, which is being scheduled this week,” he said Wednesday. “Right now, we have two new tanks that has been commissioned. One is 1,500, one is 3,000 gallon tanks.”
With the progress, he expressed hope that the projects would be complete by mid-April.
The last project update dealt with the hospital’s envelope and roof upgrade.
“We did have a meeting, and we finalized our phasing for the design as well as for the construction. So we divided this into four phases. The first phase would be for the … fourth floor. (The) second phase is for (the) second floor, (the) third phase would be for (the) first floor, (the) fourth phase would be for the courtyard. That would take much longer because that will involve not only the envelope, but some modifications to the structure to accommodate the new shutterings that we need to improve for the courtyard,” he said.
Tugade said that as soon as a review of the phase work is finalized, the next step is getting requests for quotations for the first phase of the project.
The hospital must address the issues with the envelope and the air conditioning to mitigate mold which has been found growing rampant in various parts of the hospital, GMHA has said, placing GMHA’s environment of care and infection control programs at risk of being ineffective.
A section of Guam Memorial Hospital in need of maintenance is seen in Tamuning on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024.
