by Jolene Toves

Guam - With its accreditation expiring in July, it's only a matter of time now before the Guam Memorial Hospital hears back from the Joint Commission on whether it will receive accreditation for another three years. According to Guam Memorial Hospital administrator Joseph Verga, they received good feedback from the Joint Commission, which recently conducted a surprise survey of the hospital.

After more than thirty years, it was in July 2010 that GMH received accreditation. The recent evaluation will determine whether the hospital will be granted accreditation for another three years. "The Joint Commission," Verga said, "talked about things like our infection control program, our data collection; they were really, really complimentary on our nursing staff and the whole hospital embracing the Joint Commission's quality standards and whole approach to quality and safety."

But JCO did have some concerns, with Verga saying, "The biggest two of those are not new one has to do with the threat to safety related patient care process because of the lack of resources and again what were inadequate resources rather."

Verga says the root of the problem is the hospital's debt and supply shortage among others. "The other relates to the vacancies of the critical staff that we have that have been vacant for a long time that we continue to recruit for. These go back to when the hospital was first accredited three years ago," he explained.

Although the hospital in 2010 submitted it plan of action to address the shortage of critical staff, the problem has persisted, which is raising concerns with JCO. Verga says he will be having a discussion with the JCO on how to seriously address the issues at hand. Meanwhile, the JCO also brought up issues with the physician peer review and how the peer review is conducted. "As you know, there has been controversy about that related to an old case a few years ago that we are still sorting through but we've been working on those things," he said.

Verga says JCO was complimentary on the new forms GMH is using for their peer review that were implemented when he first started at the hospital. However the problem is that they have only been in place for six months and JCO requires a year's track record.

We should note that prior to accepting the job at GMH, Verga was actually a consultant for the Joint Commission for 15 years. It's this experience he's hoping will help the hospital receive accreditation for another three years.