Guam Memorial Hospital

Guam Memorial Hospital Authority was created prior to 1954 to administer and operate the Guam Memorial Hospital.[2] Its operations represent a major change in the history of the government's role in delivery of medical care to the community. Historically, the U.S. government provided free hospital and health care services to the people of Guam. The U.S. Naval forces assumed responsibility for the island's medical needs at the turn of the 20th century when the United States took formal possession of Guam.

These services continued with the U.S. Navy's delivery of care after World War II, and culminated with their donation of the first hospital facility of the Government of Guam's Department of Public Health and Welfare in the postwar era. This "Quonset Hut" facility was replaced in 1956 with the construction of the Guam Memorial Hospital at Oka Point which originally served as a nurse training facility and tuberculosis hospital.[3] As the need for hospital services increased, this Oka Point facility was renovated to serve as a 230-bed hospital that offered acute, psychiatric and long-term care services.

In 1964, the Guam Memorial Hospital was established as a line agency of the Government of Guam's executive branch.[2] Its creation separated hospital services from community health services provided by the Department of Public Health and Welfare Corporation. Thirteen years later in 1977, the Guam Memorial Hospital was created as a Public Corporation, and has since been operating as a "governmental, non-profit institution serving the people of Guam, " under the governance of a Board of Trustees.

Prior to August 19, 1983, Guam Memorial Hospital provided mental health services. On that day, the Guam Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, which took over the responsibility of providing mental health services, opened.[4] Guam Memorial Hospital then closed their inpatient psychiatric unit and currently has no psychiatrists on staff.

The hospital has struggled with administrative, clinical and financial woes for many years. It operates with a $30 million annual operating deficit,.[5] In 2015, it faced debts of more than $21 million owed to medical supply vendors, as well as to various physician groups. To compound its financial troubles, as of June 2019, it is facing de-certification by CMS, the federal agency that administers Medicare/Medicaid funding. Its clinical problems surfaced with a damning testimony in 2018 to a legislative hearing from Nicole Dhanraj, the Chief of Radiology Services at the time.[6] Despite this testimony, Tuan Nguyen MD, has provided stability as the physician Chair of the Radiology Dept since 2015.

Guam Memorial Hospital Authority laboratory has been accredited by the College of American Pathologists since 1999.[7] Its blood bank is registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Its mammography services are accredited and certified by the American College of Radiology and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Guam Memorial Hospital became accredited by The Joint Commission on July 9, 2010 after more than 2 decades without it.[8] The hospital had lost its JCAH accreditation in 1983.[9] GMH lost its JCAH accreditation again on 16 July 2018.[10] As of 20 June 2019, the hospital is also under threat of losing its CMS Certification,[11] the federal agency that funds Medicare and Medicaid.

• Official website