A partnership between American Samoa and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Services has been struck to provide training for the territory.’s health care workforce.
This is the result of meetings which began in 2015 in Washington D.C. between ASG officials and USUHS, the only federally funded medical school in the country whose mission is to train military doctors and nurses and public health service personnel.
Representting Governor Lolo at the meetings were LBJ CEO Taufetee John Faumuina, Director of Health Motusa Tuileama Nua and Sandra King Young director of the American Samoa Medicaid Office.
The ASG officials were able to fashion a partnership idea to attempt to designate American Samoa’s hospital as a USUSH approved training site.
This would enable the institution to assign a couple of their Doctors of Nurse Practice candidates to American Samoa.
This has never been done before because the only approved training sites for USUHS are military hospitals (like Tripler) and one in Japan and Germany.
After 2 years of developing the idea, USUHS’s President signed an MOU to designate American Samoa as a training site for USUHS.
This week, a representative from USUHS will witness the Governor signing the MOU for American Samoa.
Jill Schram of USUHS is on island for a site visit to tour the community health clinics and the hospital.
The Service plans to assign one of their Nurse Practitioners candidates (NPs) to DOH and one to LBJ.
These nurse practitioners are licensed to provide medical care, can bill Medicaid and Medicare, and will also provide training as requested.
USUHS will cover the salaries for their students, while ASG provides the housing for 2 students and a vehicle for local transportation.
They are set to begin their assignments in American Samoa in June, 2017.
Sandra King Young said her role at this point is to do introductions on island and coordinate meetings for USUHS after which DOH will take over the partnership after this week.
She thanked Director Nua and CEO Taufetee for all their support and patience during the long process.
