by Mindy Aguon

Guam - Just two days on the job and new Guam Memorial Hospital administrator and chief executive officer Joseph Verga has hit the ground running, meeting with staff and touring the facility while working on a strategic initiative plan he intends to present to the board in two weeks. "I'm proud to be the CEO here and I hope to make the people of Guam even prouder than they are of their hospital," he stated.

Only on his second day on the job, Verga is moving full speed ahead on making changes to put GMH on the road to recovery. "I'm just kind of assessing where things are at the moment, but I do have some real concrete plans to change some things in real short order and some things will take longer than others."

Verga has five immediate priorities that he refers to as "Aces+Q": Accountability, Cost effectiveness, Excellence in Service, Safety and Quality. The CEO tells KUAM News he is developing a strategic plan that he intends to propose to the board that will act as a roadmap for the hospital to achieve Aces+Q "I am not an individual that accepts mediocrity," he said. "I always seek to excel at what I do and I really kind of demand the same thing of everyone else."

As he's toured the hospital, something he's done before in his prior position as an expert consultant for the Joint Commission, Verga found himself scrutinizing the different departments as if he were conducting a survey. "As I walk around the hospital meeting folks, my initial reaction is to point out what I see and jump on this and jump on that. I've been trying to step back and say, 'Nope, I'm not doing that' at the moment, so I've always told in my former role that attaining accreditation is the easy part - but keeping it is the hard part," he admitted.

Verga says residents should be confident in the quality care delivered at GMH, saying he wouldn't hesitate to go to the hospital if he were sick and says the dedication of the staff is evident. Long term, he hopes to improve the quality of care, increase accountability, change the public's perception of the hospital and improve the financial condition of GMH.

"I think we can improve the financial stability of the hospital by increasing revenue certainly decreasing expenses by cost effectiveness and finding alternate revenue sources so just in the short time I've been here, I've already identified several opportunities to do that," he said.

As for the previous management team of Rey Vega, medical director Dr. Larry Lizama and nursing director Christine Tuquero, Verga says he is still assessing who will be part of his leadership team.