Friday, August 22, 2008
A plan to restructure GMH
One of the busiest places on the island is the Guam Memorial Hospital, we always hear stories of patients having had to wait for several hours to be admitted due to the shortage of hospital beds, and especially at the emergency clinics where numerous people had to wait for several hours before they get to see a physician.
As you can imagine, this hectic activity generates a tremendous vehicular traffic, which has overtaxed the parking lots at the hospital, and it has been extremely difficult to find a parking slot, especially during visiting hours.
Additionally, the hospital occupancy rates have been consistently 100% – fully occupied.
An enterprising entrepreneur would envy the hospital "business" side, yet, we all know that gmh has serious "cash flow" problem; and you would think that the hospital rates should be at an amount to resolve this problem, which unfortunately, doing so, has it own– socio–political obstacle. Surely, there must be some alternative sources to generate revenue without having direct impact on the way the hospital provides patient services.
I am talking about three areas to generate revenues at the hospital
1. Why not do what the airport is doing with its general public parking lots? They charge by the amount of time the vehicle stays parked at the airport lot. The hospital parking lot with a car capacity of over 100 cars, surely would generate sufficient revenue.
2. The hospital as constructed has in each room, fully wired for telephone and cable tv. What is really keeping the hospital authority for not making use of these facilities? Surely, both GTA and MCV Guam, both private firms, should be allowed to install both services at each room, and the cost for such services, could be part and partial of the patient's room charges. The hospital should be able to agree with these two private firms a sharing of the revenues– which the hospital presently not getting a "cent".
Recently, during my routine medical check in la hospital, one of the doctors when learning that the GMHA hospital room does not have "cable tv", asked – how does the patient cope with boredom, while lying in bed? Of course, with a cell phone readily available, maybe we do not need to install a telephone. On the other hand, cell phones may not be allowed since it might interfere with some of the electronic hospital equipment.
These three are common and readily available in all hospitals, be they be in the U.S. or in Philippines. Why not implement them at Guam Memorial Hospital?
Joe T. San Agustin has served Guam as former chairperson of the Democratic Party of Guam and as former speaker of the Guam Legislature. He is currently chairman of the GovGuam Retirement Fund.
As you can imagine, this hectic activity generates a tremendous vehicular traffic, which has overtaxed the parking lots at the hospital, and it has been extremely difficult to find a parking slot, especially during visiting hours.Additionally, the hospital occupancy rates have been consistently 100% – fully occupied.
An enterprising entrepreneur would envy the hospital "business" side, yet, we all know that gmh has serious "cash flow" problem; and you would think that the hospital rates should be at an amount to resolve this problem, which unfortunately, doing so, has it own– socio–political obstacle. Surely, there must be some alternative sources to generate revenue without having direct impact on the way the hospital provides patient services.
I am talking about three areas to generate revenues at the hospital
1. Why not do what the airport is doing with its general public parking lots? They charge by the amount of time the vehicle stays parked at the airport lot. The hospital parking lot with a car capacity of over 100 cars, surely would generate sufficient revenue.
2. The hospital as constructed has in each room, fully wired for telephone and cable tv. What is really keeping the hospital authority for not making use of these facilities? Surely, both GTA and MCV Guam, both private firms, should be allowed to install both services at each room, and the cost for such services, could be part and partial of the patient's room charges. The hospital should be able to agree with these two private firms a sharing of the revenues– which the hospital presently not getting a "cent".
Recently, during my routine medical check in la hospital, one of the doctors when learning that the GMHA hospital room does not have "cable tv", asked – how does the patient cope with boredom, while lying in bed? Of course, with a cell phone readily available, maybe we do not need to install a telephone. On the other hand, cell phones may not be allowed since it might interfere with some of the electronic hospital equipment.
These three are common and readily available in all hospitals, be they be in the U.S. or in Philippines. Why not implement them at Guam Memorial Hospital?
Joe T. San Agustin has served Guam as former chairperson of the Democratic Party of Guam and as former speaker of the Guam Legislature. He is currently chairman of the GovGuam Retirement Fund.
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