HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — After 2-1/2 hours, the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority oversight hearing took an unexpected turn with the verbal resignation of the hospital’s administrator.
GMHA Administrator Lillian Perez-Posadas had already been questioned about the perennial challenges the island’s aging public hospital has faced. But it was questions from Sen. Telo Taitague which struck a chord.
“It is all negative, Lillian,” Taitague said. “you have been there for five years and it’s only getting worse. Isn’t there a time for you to say ‘OK, I can’t do it, I need to step down from this job and allow somebody else to come in and try to help this hospital?’”
That comment was the final blow for Perez-Posadas.
“Well, you know, Senator, thank you for that idea. Yes, I will step down. Yes, I will retire. I’ve done my time, thank you,” Perez-Posadas responded before asking to be excused from the oversight hearing.
After the hearing, Perez-Posadas told The Guam Daily Post “it wasn’t so much intense, but rather blaming, destructive and discouraging, … nonconstructive, nonproductive. Is that the kind of senatorial leadership that we should just sit back and tolerate?”
Governor’s communications director Krystal Paco-San Agustin defended Perez-Posadas’ actions, saying the actions were the fault of senators who care more about saying, “‘How can I blame you?’ rather than ‘How can I help you?’”
It’s common knowledge that the hospital has been faced with numerous issues from broken air conditioners and electrical issues to leaking roofs. The staff and community have waited for years for a new hospital to materialize. Perez-Posadas has been at the helm of GMHA for the last five years.
Earlier in the hearing, senators heard testimony from two GMHA nurses who shared the grim reality of the hospital’s condition and impact to patient care.
Isabell Flores, who works as a certified critical care nurse in the Adult Intensive Care Unit, said she stayed at the hospital for 72 hours during Typhoon Mawar, and attested to the damage the hospital sustained.
“The state of the hospital is far from good and we did not handle the storm well. During the storm there was widespread flooding. Stairwells and elevators turned into waterfalls. Ceilings and walls caved in, loose shutters banged on the walls for hours, there were multiple electrical fires in the mother and baby unit and now it smells so musty throughout the facility,” Flores testified.
As Flores continued her testimony, she made clear the problems at the hospital extended well beyond typhoon damage.
“A most recent event was a snake was found in the ceiling of our infection control office. Snakes do not belong in hospitals. That is just not acceptable. What I am really trying to understand is during the COVID-19 pandemic GMH received millions of dollars in funding, yet why is it that we are worse off than ever before?” Flores asked.
According to Flores the hospital regularly lacks linens and pillows, diabetic tube feeding formula, underpads and wipes for patient hygiene care and prefilled epinephrine syringes for medical emergencies, to name a few.
“As health care providers, we are being asked to provide care without being given the tools needed to practice that care safely and, frankly, up to the normal standards of care today,” Flores said.
She pleaded for elected officials to “rethink” how leadership of the agency is appointed.
“Our hospital administrators and board of trustees cannot be politically appointed positions. Because a political appointee’s loyalty aligns with their political party, it does not lie with patient care and safety and the overall well-being of the hospital,” Flores said, asserting that is what has brought the hospital to its dilapidated state.
Perez-Posadas, when questioned by Taitague, acknowledged that the hospital in its state could be shut down, but also recognized that as the island’s only public hospital, it can’t be shut down.
“It’s obvious that a new hospital needs to be built. However, despite constant criticism about GMH facilities, senators did not support building a new hospital at Eagles Field and never offered a plan of their own,” Paco-San Agustin said. “It is our hope that these senators will now work with the administration to build a new hospital.”
“As for the leadership of GMH, only Republican math would suggest that 16 straight years of failed GOP management at GMH could be undone by just over one term with Gov. Leon Guerrero,” Paco-San Agustin continued.
Paco-San Agustin said Perez-Posadas remains the head of the hospital despite her actions during the public hearing.
“Administrator Perez-Posadas has not officially submitted her resignation. For now, GMH continues to operate normally and the governor is actively speaking with GMH leadership. She will act accordingly going forward,” Paco-San Agustin said.
The events that transpired prompted Speaker Therese Terlaje to recess the oversight hearing to allow the GMH administration to “regroup.”
“I adjourned the hearing after consultation with my colleagues and I am looking to the hospital administration, the governor, and the lieutenant governor to reevaluate the situation which looks to be a crisis at this point and to propose new solutions as soon as possible. The Legislature will work together to implement any statutory changes necessary.” the speaker said in a press release.
Guam Memorial Hospital Administrator Lillian Perez-Posadas testifies during an oversight hearing Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, in the Public Hearing Room of the Guam Congress Building in Hagåtña.
