It's 21 miles to an emergency hospital, 21 miles back over a two-lane road often jammed with traffic. An hour one or, more away, an hour or more back--2 hours when this ambulance is unavailable to pick up another Lahaina area patient as it crawls back to town. This dilemma would end with the building of West Maui Community Hospital.

According to the Hawaii Visitors Bureau, 50,000 people--residents, visitors and workers like those shown here--live, play or work in West Maui, one of the world's premier resort communities.For unique reasons, the closest acute emergency hospital is an average 66 minutes away over a single double lane road that passes through mountainous terrain.