VIEWPOINT by BRIAN HOYLE

New $70 million plan will deliver
more than a hospital for West Maui

With the West Maui Improvement Foundation’s new plans for a West Maui medical center in the news and the Maui Heath Care Initiative Task Force about to issue its recommendations, the rumor mill is alive, and not necessarily so accurately.

Some are wondering what is the so-called Hoyle group that wants to bring acute emergency care to West Maui. Others are hearing rumors about our plans, some undoubtedly true, some not true. The foundation, through its president, Joe Pluta, joins with me in providing this overview.

Some 40 years ago, my uncle developed the Maui Eldorado Resort and still owns land in Kaanapali. As hospital and nursing home developers, my father and uncle worked to improve medical care on Maui and throughout the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s. Today, after my own 30 years of owning, developing and building hospitals and nursing homes throughout the U.S., I am pleased to return to Maui to try to meet the west side’s need for a complete emergency hospital and long-term care facility.

All the plans we previously released are still on the table: acute emergency care, a 25-bed critical access hospital, two operating rooms, a medical office building and clinic, a 40-bed skilled nursing facility and 40 long-term assisted-living units.

To be clear, the central role of the medical center we are planning with the West Maui Improvement Foundation will be to provide acute emergency care to everyone on the west side regardless of income level or the insurance people carry. By law, acute emergency ambulance crews are required to bring patients with threatening illnesses to the nearest acute care hospital. In our case, this means anyone in West Maui in need of assistance.

It should also be clear that we have not abandoned the idea of building an assisted-living or long-term care facility. Although it is true that long-term care beds are expensive to maintain and can be a drain on finances, we continue to work with health care providers and area business people throughout the community to bring long-term care to West Maui

We could build and own a long-term care facility or have space for it on the 14.9 acres of land that is being made available. If someone else wants to build it, we are prepared to run it and staff it.

The “we” is not just Brian Hoyle. I am a principal of Southwest Health Group whose management and partners have a combined 140 years experience in health care development and management. The group has built and operates five community hospitals, including the only hospital in the New Orleans area that continued operating after the Katrina disaster.

It should be pointed out that, American Healthcare Investment LLC, a firm I founded in 1998, now has 15 nursing facilities in Iowa, Utah and Colorado. My Newport Hospital Corp. is a health care investment and consulting firm with operations in 10 states and also owns a 34-bed geriatric psychiatric hospital in Newport Beach, Calif.

The $70 million in financing for the West Maui medical center will be provided by Newport Hospital Corp. and its investment partners, including the Southwest Health Group. Its officers include Irvin Gregory, developer of 130 hospitals or surgical centers the last 30 years; J. Michael Mullin with 25 years of in health care financing and accounting experience with health care companies; CEO James Parkhurst of Newport Bay Hospital in Newport Beach; CEO Ira Jackson of hospitals in Houston and Victoria, Texas; and Promod Seth with 30 years experience in the health care industry.

We are pleased to be associated with the community-based West Maui Improvement Foundation, a group that deserves a great deal of credit for spearheading the hospital effort over the last eight years and laying all the groundwork for the anticipated zoning changes necessary to build on land near the Lahaina Civic Center. We are also most appreciative of the generosity of the folks at Ka’anapali 2020 and their long-standing offer to make the land available.

We have a good team and strong financial support. But we do need the support of everyone in Maui County to assure that we can move this all-important effort forward and secure a certificate of need from the state.
Improving the quality of health care is a worthwhile goal for everyone. To learn more, you can go to westmauihospital.org. or attend the West Maui Taxpayers Association annual meeting, at 5 p.m. Jan. 17 at the Lahaina Civic Center.
We humbly ask for your support.