In October last year, GMH received preliminary accreditation following a two-day survey completed on Sept. 23.
As an accredited medical facility, GMH will get a gold seal of approval, representing the highest level of care.
Under the Joint Commission, all health care organizations, other than laboratories, are subject to a three-year accreditation cycle.
With respect to hospital surveys, the organization does not make its findings public. However, it does provide the organization’s accreditation decision, the date that accreditation was awarded, and any standards that were cited for improvement.
GMH announced last week that it had been awarded $444,189 in federal grant funding as part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Hospital Preparedness Program, which is designed to help the nation’s hospitals and health care systems to prepare for and respond to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies.
The funding is Guam’s share of $390.5 million distributed nationally this month.
The hospital will use the funding to buy needed equipment that can be used both during normal hospital operations, and public health emergencies.
Projects set to be funded include the upgrade of IV infusion pumps, renovations of isolation rooms at the GMH Skilled Nursing Unit, and the upgrade of automated emergency victim tracking software.
“As a hospital, we must be ready at all times for any emergency that could strike our island,” said hospital administrator PeterJohn D. Camacho. “These funds will help us in our continued efforts to create and maintain a system to not just provide quality care to our everyday patients, but also to provide that same level of care to victims of any future public health emergencies.”
