The hospital board has been heavily criticized by the legislature and Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga for their involvement in the hiring of LBJ employees, yet board member Dr. Victor Tofaeono says he cannot sit back knowing that he can help the hospital and that is why he’s in the recruiting business for the hospital.

Last month in his letter to the Chairman of the Hospital Board, Mase Akapo, Lolo raised concerns about the hospital board’s total involvement in the “hiring of employees, overriding management decisions, recruiting physicians, along with setting their salaries.” He pointed out that the role of the board is to set policies, which will govern and guide management in the execution of their duties and responsibilities.

In an interview with Samoa News over the weekend, Dr. Tofaeono stated that the Human Resources officials, while they have been paid to hire, have no background in the medical field and therefore they cannot hire physicians.

“If you go through the recruiting office, you’ll find that they did not hire that many doctors. People in the HR are from fields which are not related to the medical field — we hired them but they do not know where to go to recruit doctors. I do, and I’ve done this for years,” he said.

He said his actions are meant to help out HR by bringing doctors from Las Vegas where he worked before, and they are volunteer doctors. Dr. Tofaeono said that he’s also working on bringing on board resident physicians from the UH to work here for two to three months and working on rotating those doctors.

“That’s one of the areas where I have been involved — in the recruiting of resident physicians to come here,” and also pointed out “the doctors the hospital has been recruiting are from foreign nations like the Philippines and Fiji, but the doctors I recruit are from the US and not only do I help recruit the doctors, but also nurses.”

“When you look at the bylaws of the board, they are supposed to help the hospital in any way they can, and this is one of the ways I can help the board and the hospital. I’m not gonna sit by and watch them look for physicians if I can help.” Dr. Tofaeono said recruiting is an area in which he has helped the hospital for several years, and continues to do so, since he has the expertise and knowledge of sources for physicians and allied health personnel that other members of the staff do not.

“I have brought teams of doctors from Las Vegas, hired doctors from the US Public Health Services Corp, the John A. Burns School of Medicine in Hawai’i, and continue to persuade American Samoan doctors in the U.S. and Hawai[i to either return home to live and work, or at least help our recruiting efforts.”

About his travel to Nashville, Tennessee, last month, Dr. Tofaeono said his visit was to consult with a health system that treats poorly controlled diabetes in the Mississippi Delta, an area similar to American Samoa in economy and healthcare, called Diabetes Health Care Group. 

“They are subsidized by Medicaid and Medicare contractually rather than fee-for service, which I hope can be adapted to the care of diabetes at home. “All this information was provided to (hospital CEO) Taufetee to review before approving the refund of money that I had paid to travel from Vegas to Nashville.”

The board member said, “I figured since I was there already at hospital’s expense I might as well do something constructive to help with our healthcare planning and delivery.” He stated again the mission and goals of the LBJ Board of Directors, and said that recruiting is well within the responsibilities of the board members.

“It is my belief and conviction that we need to have the best medical staff that our money can secure for the people of American Samoa, and I am always willing to help reach that goal since I know that is the belief of our Governor and his Cabinet, the Fono members, all of our people.”

Dr. Tofaeono along with Mase were the two board members who had travelled to the mainland through the off island referral program.

Of his medical referral, he told Samoa News that his case was carefully reviewed and approved by the Off-Island Care Committee, and the case is confidential and protected by law. The board member said, “You can rest assured, however, that my referral was properly processed and followed the guidelines of the referral program.”