LBJ Nurses get a Wage "booster" shot!
By: Tosimaeʻa Tupua
Email: tupua@opi.as.gov
Christmas has arrived early at the LBJ Tropical Medical Center. Effective December 6, 2022. LBJ nurses will receive a different kind of " booster" shot-increase in their pay checks-after LBJʻs Board of the Directors gave the green light. According to LBJ's CEO, Moefaʻauo Bill Emmsley, the last comprehensive, organizational-wide, and concurrent pay adjustment as well as position re-classification occurred about eight (8) years ago, until the new administration showed up and heard the "cry of nurse", said Chairman of the Board Dr. Malouamaua Tuiolosega.
In a press release issued this morning, Chief Executive Officer of LBJ Hospital, Moefaauo Bill Emmsley says with the prevalence in shortage-of-nurses as a global phenomenal, which reached crisis level at LBJ, the rising cost of living, the expanded working hours stipulated by pandemics, and the unappreciated fact that LBJ is a 24/7 acute care hospital with an emergency room that opens day and night, it is only reasonably and fair to revisit nursing compensation as a matter strategic sense" not as a means to an
end but, only as a small token of appreciation and effective recruiting and retention instrument to ensure patient safety and quality of healthcare at LBJ is upheld and perpetual, respectively", said Moefaʻauo.
With this "booster"; shot, LBJ nurse wages are now relatively "competitive" (20% increase at the entry levels)1, ranking even above some of the most industrialized and larger countries in the region but still below US, on average, by as much as 30%, as outlined in the table below:
Partially funded by the ARPA grant, LBJ Board of Directors and management profoundly appreciated Governor Lemanu P. Mauga for making healthcare a "centerpiece" of his administrationʻs top priorities, said Chairman Dr. Tuiolosega. As such, "LBJ will continue to actively engage in raising "standards of excellence" in performances as well as quality of its operational areas namely, infrastructural and facilities renovations and expansions, compensations for physicians, nurses, and technologists, state of
the art medical equipment, training for healthcare providers are among the top list of particulars constantly in the CEOʻs strategic thought", added Chairman Dr.Tuiolosega. However, as a cautionary note, LBJ is facing a daunting task given its limited resources from its annual fiscal budget, sluggish incoming revenues, to inefficient operations. "Compounding the challenge is the reality that LBJ must accomplish all these vital services, our people while improving.