KAHUKU — A state grant that will allow Ko'olauloa Community Health and Wellness Center to expand and relocate on Kahuku hospital property is expected to ease the center's crowded conditions for medical patients from the North Shore to Ka'a'awa.

The health center, which has 4,000 patients, now operates out of a single trailer in the Kahuku Sugar Mill parking lot on a month-to-month lease.

Gov. Linda Lingle released the $600,000 grant Monday, noting in a news release that the partnership between the state and clinics like Ko'olauloa health center "play a valuable role in ensuring low income and underinsured individuals and families receive affordable healthcare as well as preventive medical services."

Irene Carpenter, president of the health center's board, said the funding will be used to expand physical space, move to the Kahuku Medical Center's campus and perhaps open a satellite office in Hau'ula.

The center has had to limit the number of patients it can see and hold off on setting up a dental clinic because of space considerations at the Sugar Mill property, which is for sale, Carpenter said.

"We could have more patients, but we just can't put another person in that trailer," she said.

Tim Shea, a regular patient at the center, said the waiting room holds six or seven people and often patients spill out onto the porch, a wheelchair ramp and along steps.

"Sometimes there's no room and you have to sit in your car," he said. "Just let the nurse know where you're at and when it's your turn, she'll come out and get you."

Along with more space, Shea said the clinic also needs a permanent location. He said he fears losing the doctors if the center loses its lease.

"We definitely don't want to lose those doctors," Shea said. "They're good and they have good hearts. Anything the community can do for them would be a benefit."

Deacon Hanson, interim executive director for the health center, said working conditions at the health center haven't been optimal. "We're hoping this will improve conditions for both the patients and the employees," Hanson said.

Lance Segawa, Kahuku Medical Center administrator, said he was excited to hear about the health center's grant.

"It sends a real positive message from the state that ... Kahuku Medical Center and now Ko'olauloa — as a federally qualified health center — can work together to provide the community at large a collaborative health service environment," Segawa said. "Rather than working as competitors, we're working side by side."

The health center, which opened four years ago, had wanted to move into the hospital from the beginning but had to put off plans because of the hospital's financial problems and its recent takeover by the Hawaii Health Systems Corp. Carpenter said the center and the hospital are negotiating for space on the hospital campus where more trailers can be located.

Having the hospital close by is a benefit for the patients and the hospital, she said. Laboratory and X-ray work, for example, can be done at the hospital, and patients will not have to cross busy Kamehameha Highway to get there as they do now, she said.

Regarding dental care services, the center has a fully equipped van, supplies and money to pay a dentist, but there was no room at the Sugar Mill, Carpenter said. At the hospital campus, the health center will be able to open a dental clinic, hire more doctors and expand services such as those linked to substance abuse and homelessness, she said.

"They're all tied in with healthcare, and we're looking at different ways we can tie those services in, make it a place when you come in you can be referred to a lot of different services," Carpenter said.