Kagman, Southern, Tinian clinics damaged; Isla opens pop-up at Kagman High

With its facilities in Kagman, Southern, and Tinian sustained varying degrees of damage following Super Typhoon Sinlaku, Isla Community Health Center has been forced to scale back operations and shift to contingency care, officials said.

Chief executive officer Cindy P. Hoepner told Marianas today, April 20, that the impact has disrupted normal clinic services, particularly on Tinian where conditions are “a tougher situation because… the damages are much more significant,” and reopening will depend on available resources.

Southern, she said, is expected to resume operations immediately, while Kagman may reopen on a limited basis within days.

“For Southern, we’re opening up tomorrow and we’re navigating it every day. Our hope is that with our water supply, with our backup water supply that we have right now, that it’ll help us sustain the hours for full clinic days, but again that’s dependent. We will update our website so people will be able to know what’s our hours for that site. For Kagman, we’re hoping to in the next week, if not sooner, at least open it even for limited time to provide access of care to the Kagman residents, and for Tinian, that’s a tougher situation because there’s a lot of factors and the damages are much more significant and it’s based on what kind of resources we can get to reopen,” Hoepner said.

She added that if facilities remain inoperable, the organization is prepared to deploy alternative care models.

“One of what we’re looking at is alternative plans on how can then we open to support, whether it’s through pop-up clinics to support the community, so beyond meet them where they’re at, beyond our walls,” she said.

With Kagman clinic still offline, Isla set up a temporary pop-up clinic at the shelter at Kagman High School to serve displaced residents and those unable to access regular care.

Community Services and Partnerships manager Carmilynn T. Ogumoro said the outreach was driven by immediate need.

“We definitely provided that value to the patients as well so I feel that there was a need met today and we’re looking to do more outreach throughout the week depending on our staffing capacity, but we want to get out and get the residents of Kagmanthe care they need in a timely manner,” Ogumoro said.

The pop-up clinic prioritized vulnerable patients, including those needing medication refills and chronic disease monitoring, with services such as blood pressure and glucose checks. Staff also coordinated with partners to deliver medications.

Hoepner said the effort reflects Isla’s mission as a federally qualified health center to reach underserved populations in times of crisis.

“I really was encouraging my team that we got to get out and help the community, and that’s part of our mission as a federally qualified health center is to serve the underserved, the uninsured, and the most vulnerable. This is a time after the storm where there’s a lot of vulnerability, a lot of challenges, and that’s what we’re here for. We’re a clinic for the community so we’re meeting them where they’re at,” she said.

She noted that Southern clinic briefly opened despite initial plans to remain closed after patients began arriving.

“We had patients outside our clinic who were waiting today this morning at 9 o’clock in Southern and they asked if we were closed, and I said we were supposed to be closed but we have the resource, we have the staff, we’ll open up,” Hoepner said.

Both officials thanked partner organizations and volunteers, including the American Red Cross, for supporting shelter operations and patient care as well as the leadership of KagmanHigh School.

“We are a resilient community so we’ll get through this together,” Ogumoro said.