Chief Executive Officer Juan N. Babauta, believes the best people now occupy the right positions for the organization’s demanding task of kick-starting and implementing the process of re-organization.
“Beyond the resume, credentials, education …I looked for the best among the community who have a strong desire to serve and believe in the ‘can-do’ mission,” the former governor said.
Of the seven senior appointments, five are in-house and include Dr. Michael Deary as director of medical affairs and Esther Muna, returning to her position as chief financial officer from the acting role of hospital administrator.
Karen Buettner is the new director of hospital services, Dr. Daniel Lamar is now medical director of public health, Roxanne Diaz assumes the post of Director of Public Health Services and Legal Counsel is Assistant Attorney General James Kearney.
The new director of nursing, Leticia Reyes, comes from outside the system and has a start date of January.
Currently Reyes is co-chair of Saipan Southern High School’s nursing assistantship program.
Rounding out the senior leadership team is James Philips as executive officer.
“As a team, we strongly believe we can turn healthcare around for residents,” commented Babauta when asked about the overall attitude of the new leadership group.
Opinions of numerous nurses and doctors seem to share the renewed optimism.
Variety attended a Thanksgiving meal with various long-term staff one day after the announcement and found the comments consistent in noting the improvement of top-down communication of the prior two weeks, and that the feeling of inclusion was beginning to take hold.
