Crownpint hospital ER reopens
Eastern Navajo health facility returns to 24/7 operation

By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Crownpoint Health Care Facility reopened to a 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week operation on Friday.

John Hubbard, Navajo Area Indian Health Service director, delivered the news to the Navajo Nation Council’s Health and Social Services Committee during its regular meeting Tuesday.

“Everything is back to 24-7,” he said.

The problem that caused the Crownpoint Health Care Facility to temporarily scale back its emergency room services to a daytime operation was because of three laboratory workers leaving the facility, Hubbard said.

“In the weeks since then, we have been able to hire more staff. When we scaled back services, we only had six lab workers. Since then we added additional to a point where we now have 16 lab workers,” he said.

“One thing I want the committee to understand is that the management at IHS has been dealing with some very serious issues in Crownpoint for the last year and a half,” Hubbard said to the committee.

He added that the problems with the lab began two years ago and other issues came up with management, which prompted him to propose for a new CEO at the Crownpoint Health Care Facility .

He said that since he made the proposal, the Navajo Area Indian Health Services has been awaiting a decision from headquarters in Rockville, Md., which is why a permanent CEO has not yet been hired.

“I just can’t go ahead and announce the position and hire somebody else. There is a very cumbersome process that is in place for those kind of personnel issues,” Hubbard said. “I am told that the process will be ending so I’m very, very hopeful that we would move to hire new staff.”

Hubbard also told the committee that the NAIHS is also waiting to hear from the Navajo Department of Justice to construct a new modular building to serve the Thoreau area.
Alice Benally and Harry Hubbard, both Council delegates representing chapters in the Eastern Agency, expressed concerns that this incident is the second involving the lab, and they did not want a third incident to scale back operations again.

Evelyn Acothley, Council delegate for Bodaway-Gap, Cameron and Coppermine Canyon, suggested that a thorough evaluation be conducted to address personnel issues that were brought up during the committee’s meeting in Crownpoint on June 6.