Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A total of 62 Security Officers are working at the LBJ hospital and in total are paid close to a million dollars.

“According to healthcare industry standards for security planning at a hospital, 62 security officers at a price tag of one million dollars for a hospital the size of LBJ is fiscally irresponsible.

This was revealed in the Investigation Report LBJ Tropical Medical Center Human Resources Department (2019 – 2022), obtained by Samoa News.

This investigation report led to the move by the hospital to terminate the services of the former HR Director, Dr Akenese Nikolao.

According to the 18-page report there were a number of testimonies obtained during the investigation into Dr Akenese over unfair hiring practices, and that certain people were treated preferentially and allowed to bypass the application process.

The report noted that in the year 2020 after the COVID lockdowns went into effect, “the HR Department hired the most Security Officers (SO) it ever had.

“In 2020, HR received 312 applications in total for the SO position of 23. From those applicants three were hired as security yet were placed in other positions.”

There was an additional hire of 15 officers yet there were no listing of additional offices by the Security Department’s List of Employees.

“This correlates with the allegation that people were being hired as SOs but then assigned to work in other departments, e.g. as Orderlies, without proper approvals and signatures.”

Other significant findings from the Security Officer data:

Highest Paid SO is Chief Security Officer $34,465 (22 years); Security Officer Lead $21,673 (30 years); Security Supervisor $20,009 (10 years); Security Officer IV Lead $18,990 (14 years); Security Officer IV $19,947 (24 years); Security Officer $17,700 (10 years) 14; Security Officer $16,286 (13 years) and Security Officer $15,080 (8, 7, 5 , 3 years).

“Security Officer with eight years were [sic] earning the same as a new hires.

“The total cost for 62 SOs = $980,699.20 annually,” according to the report. 

“This allowance is perhaps more than negligent, and was a failure by the HR Director to perform her duty to monitor and report hospital staffing budget performance.

“This allowance also impairs LBJ’s ability to achieve its mission of patient-focused, comprehensive, high-quality, cost-effective healthcare for our people.”

The report also cited the predictors commonly used in the healthcare industry when planning headcount for security staffing levels.

“A hospital’s staffing formula should take into account its square footage, number of licensed beds, specialty units (psychiatric unit and trauma unit), and patrol and response needs.

“The best security staffing models utilize some combination of these predictors.

“LBJ would seem to fall somewhere between the middle rows of the table below. It’s smaller than 750,000 sq.ft. and 300 beds but larger than 12,000 sq.ft. and 25 beds.

“An adequate number of SOs for LBJ appears to be less than 25 FTEs but more than 17, which translates to a cost-savings upwards of 60% to 73%. LBJ could certainly use that $588K to $715K savings towards its nursing crisis and improve patient care,” says the report.

The investigation report also zeroed in on what led to the nurses walking out of work and striking against the hospital. 

“According to the Vice Chairwoman of LBJ’s Board of Directors, Dr. Jean Andersen, following the then appointment of William Emmsley [sic] as LBJ CEO in April 2022, the Board explored the need to replace the hospital’s HR Director Dr. Akenese and two other senior level LBJ employees.

“The Board was receiving numerous reports of misconduct by these individuals and that significant problems uncovered in LBJ’s Nursing, Engineering, Finance, and HR departments were directly connected to the actions and inactions of these senior level employees.

“However, CEO Emmsley [sic] replied to the Board saying that he did not have the people needed to help him make the changes expected at LBJ.

“He convinced the Board that he needed Dr. Akenese, given her experience with grants and her esteemed writing skills. Rather than removing her as HR Director, Emmsley [sic] proposed creating a new position to transition her to - the Office of Special Projects and Public Relations (OSPPR).

“Emmsley [sic] convinced the Board that the hospital needed to pursue new revenue streams, e.g. via donations and fundraising, and that Dr. Akenese could spearhead those initiatives in the OSPPR.

“Following her appointment to that office in July 2022, tensions came to a head with LBJ’s nurses as some began expressing their frustrations and anger over their low pay and lack of wage increases despite numerous years of service, their inordinately long work shifts, the withholding of overtime pay, the high patient to nurse ratio, and the lack of recruitment by HR for new nurses to help them improve patient care.

“When the nurses took the extraordinary step of going on strike it sent shockwaves across the territory.

“Some government leaders, including Emmsley [sic], were very critical of the nurses in light of the fact that the people of American Samoa only have one hospital to go to.”

The report says that (former) CEO Moefaauo Bill Emmsley also became very critical of his newly appointed HR Director, Savali Ulutu.

“He felt Ms. Savali was not managing HR as expected nor fixing the problems in HR that the nurses were complaining about. However, Ms. Savali had only been working in the HR Department since July 2022. The problems that the nurses were striking about were years in the making. Ms. Savali’s predecessor had been the HR Director and Deputy with direct oversight responsibilities for the department for the nine years prior to Ms. Savali,” says the report.

[Editor’s Note: It should be noted that the report identifies the former LBJ CEO as William Emmsley or CEO Emmsley or Emmsley. However, out of respect for cultural norms, Samoa News has always identified individuals by their matai title as well as with the name by which they are known in the community. In this case, Mr. Emmsley’s matai title, along with the name by which the community knows him is Moefaauo Bill Emmsley. ra]