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Stories, Opinion Articles

New $70 million plan will deliver
more than a hospital for West Maui
VIEWPOINT by BRIAN HOYLE

(2007-2008 stories that have run in Maui News, Lahaina News to be added soon)

Improvement Association Asks Maui Memorial to Clarify Plans for West Maui

Lahaina-February 7, 2005-Moving to bring some clarity to proposals for new health care facilities, the West Maui Improvement Foundation has invited Wesley Lo, chief executive officer of Maui Memorial Medical Center, to respond to a series of questions it says are key to understanding how each might play a role in providing acute emergency care to residents and visitors. Complete Release

Supported by the West Maui Taxpayers Association, the improvement foundation this month launched a "Golden Hour Fund" and will hold a major fund raiser April 8 to provide the initial monies for an acute emergency care full service hospital to be built in Lahaina. "The biggest need," says Foundation President Joe Pluta, "is for a full-service hospital that provides acute emergency care in every sense, including stabilizing and then treating patients right here in West Maui through on-site surgery or other procedures. "Adding emergency acute care in West Maui will also improve care island-wide since it will take some of the pressure off Maui Memorial's crowded emergency room," he said. Pluta noted that since Maui Land & Pineapple Company announced its intent to donate land to Maui Memorial to build a medical facility in Kapalua neither he nor the community have been able to learn specifics about this new proposal. "With alternate proposals on the table, we need the facts so the community knows how its needs will be met," he said. Key questions include location, specific services to be provided, cost, sources of funding, timetable until completion, availability of infrastructure and who will manage it. Earlier this month, Pluta called for a heath care summit to bring health care providers together to discuss the same issues on March 10. "Our hope is that the March meeting can still be held, though limited to key decision makers. "We decided to reach out to the community faster and so we have added the news conference Feb 11." . West Maui Improvement Foundation 181 Lahainaluna Road, Suite I, P.O. Box 10338, Lahaina, HI 96761

VIEWPOINT MAUI NEWS Published January 21, 2005 LIVES ARE AT STAKE: LET'S PULL TOGETHER by Joe Pluta, President, West Maui Taxpayers Association With lives at stake, it's time to set the record straight on the key issue of bringing emergency health care to 50,000 residents and visitors who live or stay in West Maui. Medical experts say survival rates for heart attacks and strokes increase dramatically when victims reach a full-service hospital within the so-called golden hour. For more than four years, the West Maui Taxpayers Assn. has laid the groundwork for just such a full-service hospital, obtaining a definitive land donation from Ka'anapali Development Corp, completing the necessary environmental impact and other studies and securing pledges of support from county officials. Thanks to our many donors who have provided seed money, we are ready to go. We are now launching a "Golden Hour Fund" campaign with the goal of raising $4-million, the first $480,000 of which will help us complete architectural drawings and apply for $30-$40 million HUD funding and approval of a State Certificate of Need. (This follows our previous success of raising $6.5 million to build a fire station in Napili in 1992). Meanwhile, Maui Memorial Medical Center and Maui Land & Pineapple Co. earlier this month announced a hastily put together proposal to create a $ 5-million facility to provide elderly care and "emergency services." This initiative leaves the confusing impression that Maui Pine's participation insures that we will get a hospital. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just a few words-acute emergency care and emergency services frame the debate. The taxpayer association backed West Maui Hospital in Lahaina,--center of our West Side resident and resort population--focuses on full-service acute emergency care. In acute emergency care, critical patients are stabilized and then treated on site. The necessary doctors and medical staff are available 24/7 to perform many needed procedures, including surgery. Again, this is a full-service hospital. On the other hand, the focus of the Maui Memorial/Maui Pine medical facility would be elderly care with all beds devoted to longer term stays. A secondary function, as we interpret the first announcement, would be emergency services to stabilize patients before transport to Maui Memorial. The acute emergency care would still be provided at Maui Memorial in Kahalui, a minimum 66-minute trip by ambulance from the West Side. What we have proposed is a hospital. Maui Memorial's West Side facility would be for long term care with a very small holding area for acute patients to be sent to Kahalui. The West Maui Taxpayers Assn. plan clearly deserves the widest possible community support not only in the form of financial contributions but in the form of letters to public officer holders, community leaders and lively public forums such as Maui News. Today's Maui is far different from the Maui of just a few years ago. And it is time for us to face facts. Health care on Maui has long suffered from lack of competition, with Maui Memorial the only hospital. On a personal note, I have had the experience of an emergency ambulance ride to Maui Memorial and the agony of waiting several hours there in a packed emergency room before treatment. The administrators of Maui Memorial are good people doing the best they can. They are, however, failing to bring Maui the kind of health care we deserve. And there is no indication they will do better in West Maui. The time for serving the public interest, not self-interest, is now. At the West Maui Taxpayers Assn., we support the building of a true full service acute care emergency hospital whether we build it or someone else builds it. If Maui Memorial wants to build an elderly care facility, great, as long as it does not confuse the issue and make people believe acute emergency care is being provided when it is not. If Dr. Ronald Kwon wants to build a Malulani Hospital in Kihei, great. All of these facilities are needed as Maui population soars, as forecast, to 60,000 to 75,000 in the next five years. The West Maui Taxpayers Assn. is calling for a Health Care Summit among all relevant constituencies to develop a common approach that serves the real needs of our communities. No more politics, no more self-interest. Let me assure everyone, however, that the taxpayers association and the West Maui Improvement Foundation that will build the full-service hospital is moving full speed ahead to raise the funds to complete the final steps prior to an early groundbreaking. We see the summit not as another delay but the opportunity to convince everyone that our plan is the best plan for the community. Let us all wake up to the fact that absence of an acute care hospital in a multi-billion dollar community represents a crisis. Lives are at stake. Let us all get behind a plan that gives people a sense of assurance their lives are not at risk when they live, work, or play in West Maui. _____ More information is available on line at http://www.westmaui.org HEALTHCARE DEFINITIONS FROM THE MEDICARE AND THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION ACUTE CARE A pattern of health care in which a patient is treated for an acute (immediate and severe) episode of illness, for the subsequent treatment of injuries related to an accident or other trauma, or during recovery from surgery. Specialized personnel using complex and sophisticated technical equipment and materials usually give acute care in a hospital. Unlike chronic care, acute care is often necessary for only a short time. A hospital which cares primarily for patients having conditions or undergoing procedures which could result in severe or serious injury or diseases. BROAD SERVICE HOSPITAL A hospital which is staffed and equipped to provide inpatient medical or surgical care, or both, for acute and chronic illness, injury, or obstetrics. Any institution with an organized medical staff which admits patients for inpatient care, diagnosis, observation, and treatment. CUSTODIAL CARE Care provided primarily for maintenance, or which is designed essentially to assist the patient in meeting his activities of daily living and which is not primarily provided for its therapeutic value in the treatment of an illness or injury. Custodial care includes, but is not limited to: help in walking, bathing, dressing, feeding, preparation of special diets and supervision over self-administration of medications. Such services shall be considered custodial care without regard to the provider by whom or by which they are prescribed, recommended or performed. EMERGENCY Sudden unexpected onset of illness or injury which requires the immediate care and attention of a qualified physician, and which, if not treated immediately, would jeopardize or impair the health of the patient. EMERGENCY CENTER, EMERGI-CENTER Non-hospital affiliated health facility that provides short-term care for minor medical emergencies or procedures needing immediate treatment; also called an Urgent center, urgi-center, or free standing emergency medical service center. EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE Medical services provided after the sudden onset of an emergency medical condition and resulting in an unscheduled or unplanned visit, admission or other medical services to assess, relieve and/or treat the emergent condition. EXTENDED CARE FACILITY An institution or distinct part thereof, operated pursuant to law and one which meets all of the following conditions: 1. Is licensed to provide and is engaged in providing on an inpatient basis, services and physical restoration services to assist patient to reach a degree of body functioning to permit self-care in essential daily living activities. 2. Under the full-time supervision or a physician or Registered Nurse. 3. Provides twenty-four (24) hour-a-day nursing services. 4. Maintains a complete medical record on each patient. 5. Is not, other than incidentally, a place for rest, a place for the aged, a place for drug addicts, a place for alcoholics, a place for custodial or educational care, or a place for the care of mental and nervous disorders. 6. Is approved and licensed by Medicare. HOSPITAL 1. Any institution duly licensed, certified and operated as a Hospital. In no event shall the term "Hospital" include a convalescent facility, nursing home, or any institution or part thereof which is used primarily as a convalescence facility, rest facility, nursing facility or facility for the aged. 2. Any institution with an organized staff which admits patients for inpatient care, diagnosis, observation and treatment. 3. An institution which meets the following conditions: (a) is licensed and operated in accordance with the laws and the jurisdiction, in which it is located, which pertain to hospitals. (b) is engaged primarily in providing medical care and treatment to ill and injured persons on an inpatient basis. (c) maintains on its premises all the facilities necessary to provide for the diagnosis, medical and surgical treatment of an illness or injury, and such treatment is provided by or under the supervision of a physician with continuous twenty-four (24) hour nursing services by or under the supervision of Registered Nurses. (d) qualifies as a hospital and is accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and (e) is approved by Medicare. Under no circumstances will a hospital be, other than incidentally, a place for rest, a place for the aged, or a nursing home. URGENT CARE The diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions which are serious or acute but pose no immediate threat to life and health, but which requires medical attention within twenty four (24) hours.

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