HOUSE leaders support the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.’s funding request to U.S. Congress for the hospital’s proposed infrastructure projects in the amount of $129 million.
In separate letters, Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez, House Health & Welfare Committee Chair Tina Sablan and Vice Chair Leila Staffler expressed their support for CHCC’s request.
Villagomez sent his letter to U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan on Monday while Sablan and Staffler conveyed their support in a joint letter last week.
“We appreciate the assistance of the U.S. Congress in providing funds for the enhancements, improvements and modernization of our hospital,” Villagomez said in his letter to Kilili.
CHCC submitted to the U.S. Congress the following infrastructure project proposals:
• Architectural and engineering plans to renovate and expand the facilities of CHCC, including clinical spaces, in order to better accommodate the healthcare needs of a population that has more than doubled since the completion of CHCC’s current structures in 1990.
• Expansion of home dialysis services in the Commonwealth, by adding Continuous Cycler-assisted Peritoneal Dialysis and making home dialysis therapy available to medically eligible residents of Rota and Tinian so that they will no longer have to relocate to Saipan for life-saving treatment.
• Construction of a new CHCC Material & Supply Office on Saipan, to provide better protection to millions of dollars in healthcare assets, and replace an old warehouse structure that has sustained extensive damage from flooding and typhoons and undergone multiple renovations and repairs over the past 25 years.
• Expansion and modernization of CHCC’s Intensive Care Unit, to increase capacity of the ICU to accommodate the critical healthcare needs of a growing and aging population, and build a state-of-the-art ICU facility that includes isolation rooms to treat patients with infectious diseases.
• Improvements to the patient care experience through modernized Health Information Technology, including upgrades to CHCC’s phone system and the establishment of high-speed interisland connectivity and a central repository for patient records to facilitate continuity of care for patients on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.
• Renovation, expansion, and modernization of CHCC’s laboratories on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, to create state-of-the-art facilities that meet federal regulatory standards and boost the Commonwealth’s laboratory testing capacity, including diagnostic testing and testing in the event of infectious disease outbreaks.
• Establishment of mobile Magnetic Resonance Imaging services in the Commonwealth, which would dramatically assist providers in diagnosing diseases and injuries, and reduce the need for costly off-island medical referrals.
Sablan and Staffler said these projects will greatly expand the capabilities of the Commonwealth’s healthcare system, and enhance the quality of care that patients receive in the CNMI.
