West Maui may get hospital
| • | Residents hatched plan to turn sugar land to community uses |
By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor
LAHAINA, Maui — The anticipated donation of 15 acres of prime land above the Ka'anapali resort area has improved the prognosis for a new hospital serving West Maui, which has long sought more healthcare services.
The availability of cheap land will make the proposal to build a 50- to 100-bed hospital more attractive to private operators, said Joseph Pluta of the West Maui Taxpayers Association, which is spearheading the effort to get the facility built within three to five years.
The island's only acute-care facility with an emergency room, 196-bed Maui Memorial Medical Center, is at least 25 miles away in Wailuku. Kula Hospital is dedicated to long-term care and has fewer than five acute-care beds. Both facilities are among the 12 state-owned hospitals run by Hawai'i Health Systems Corp.
While West Maui has two ambulance units and a half- dozen medical clinics, none is open 24 hours a day, and there is no air ambulance service.
Pluta and others say a hospital is long overdue to serve West Maui's population of about 18,000, plus more than half the island's 40,000 visitors daily. Another 5,000 workers commute to the area, mostly in the resort areas of Ka'anapali, Honokowai, Napili and Kapalua.
Healthcare consultant Leann Strasen of Lahaina, who served two years as Maui Memorial's chief operating officer until last December, helped prepare a feasibility study for the West Maui Taxpayers Association. It found that it takes 61 to 66 minutes, on average, for a West Maui patient to arrive at Maui Memorial via ambulance after a 911 call — exceeding the "golden hour" in which a majority of critically injured trauma patients can be saved with surgery.
"It's a health-and-safety issue for the whole West Maui population," said Strasen. "When you look at the number of people in West Maui on a daily basis, we have the volume to support a 50- to 100-bed hospital.
State approval for a West Maui hospital is likely to face stiff opposition from Hawai'i Health Systems Corp., which is fiercely protective of Maui Memorial. The hospital reported a $5 million profit for the 2001 fiscal year — its best ever — a portion of which supports the company's other facilities.
Hospital officials have objected to free-standing surgery centers and other healthcare facilities that could draw patients away from Maui Memorial.
Chief executive John Schaumburg said he understands concerns about emergency care in West Maui, but there might be more cost-effective options, such as an air ambulance service.
"I think we need to investigate what the need is and how to best approach it. Being in the hospital business, I know it's an expensive and complicated business, a business that utilizes limited resources," Schaumburg said.
Strasen said Maui Memorial has reported long waits in the emergency room for regular beds and that a significant number of beds are devoted to long-term care because of the island's shortage of nursing-home beds. A West Maui hospital would alleviate some of those space problems and benefit the area economically, she said.
"If we don't get a hospital, we're not only impacting the health and safety of the full-time and part-time residents, we're affecting the future growth of West Maui," Strasen said. "People who are looking at building or buying houses here, the first thing they ask is how close is the nearest hospital."
Maui has 198 acute-care beds for its population of 117,600, according to state statistics for 2000. By comparison, Kaua'i, with less than half that population (58,300), has 110 acute-care beds at three hospitals, and the Big Island, with 148,677 residents, has 253 acute-care beds at six hospitals.
A 1995 feasibility study conducted for the state Department of Accounting and General Services concluded that West Maui had a "more-than-adequate level of primary care, urgent care and emergency services." It also said that putting a hospital in West Maui would run counter to national trends toward consolidating services in urbanized areas, and that a competing facility could dilute limited public resources for capital improvements and high-tech equipment at Maui Memorial.
Pluta said that report was outdated and failed to take into account significant data such as the area's substantial number of part-time residents.
Supporters of a West Maui hospital believe the state probably would not put up money to build and run a facility, so they are hoping to follow the model set by the community-owned nonprofit North Hawai'i Community Hospital in Waimea. The 35-bed hospital opened in 1996 is managed by Adventist Health of California, which also operates Castle Medical Center in Windward O'ahu.
Serving a community of 30,000, the Big Island hospital is expecting to generate revenue this year in excess of its annual operating budget of $27 million.
Pluta's group has put out a request for proposals with an Oct. 1 deadline. So far, two mainland companies — Triad Hospitals Inc. of Dallas and Iasis Healthcare of Tennessee — have expressed interest, Strasen said.
Patricia Ball, vice president for marketing/public affairs for Triad, said it was too early to determine the company's interest in the project, but "we are always open to exploring new development opportunities." Triad has 48 hospitals and 14 ambulatory surgery centers in 16 states.
Officials at Iasis, which runs 14 hospitals and five surgery centers, did not return calls.
Pluta and the West Maui Taxpayers Association have a track record of success with ambitious projects. Under the auspices of the West Maui Improvement Foundation, $1.6 million was raised to build a fire and ambulance station in Napili that opened 10 years ago.
In their quest for a hospital, Pluta's group and others negotiated an agreement with Ka'anapali Development Corp. for 15 acres.
The hospital would be part of a 1,154-acre development to include 2,800 residential units, a golf course, parks, a school and commercial space. Pluta estimated it would cost about $350,000 for planning and design.
Tax-deductible donations can be made to the West Maui Improvement Foundation, P.O. Box 10338, Lahaina 96761. For more information, call Joseph Pluta at (808) 661-3042 or e-mail wmta@maui.net.
Reach Christie Wilson at (808) 244-4880 or cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.
