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06/27/2025 - While the 30-day readmission rate at the CNMI’s only hospital remains relatively low at 8%, there is growing concern about the cases of long-stay inpatients on Saipan.
Both topics were the focus of a recent panel at the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation's Population Health Summit, which convened regional health leaders to discuss the issues impacting the islands.
In a panel exploring the impact of social issues on clinical care, treatment, and patient outcomes, CHCC Certified Nurse Practitioner Zoe Stephanson said, “If outcomes are poor, we would imagine that our readmission rates would be higher.”
She noted that there’s a significant dip in readmissions from 2023 to the first quarter of this year. However, participants on the panel expressed concern about long-stay patients.
They shared four specific circumstances of long-stay patients. One patient has been admitted since 2023. They have no caregiver and no place to go. Family members are all living off-island. Another patient has been admitted since 2024. They have no caregiver at home, and family members are off-island. A third patient has been admitted since 2023. Caregivers are not willing to take care of them, and the patient is uninsured. A fourth patient was admitted in 2022 and also has no caregiver and no place to go.
Maria Theresa Ogerio, a Utilization Review Case Manager at CHCC, said, “The common denominators here, for them staying here at the hospital for a very long time, is the availability of the family or caregivers to take care of them. This is quite saddening.”
She added, “We have a lot of patients here…We have patients who have been coming in, always readmitted, and the problem is no families are able or willing to take care of them.”
Ogerio said one of the challenges is limited resources with no lower-level facilities, like assisted living or residential care facilities, to transfer patients to.
Report by Thomas Manglona II
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