Lawmakers on Thursday approved $2.5 million to keep Wahiawa General Hospital afloat for at least another year.
The struggling former plantation hospital appealed to the Legislature for $6 million over two years — or $3 million annually — to continue operations while officials worked to develop a sustainable business plan.
Wahiawa General officials warned that the hospital, which has about 600 full- and part-time workers, could shut down in six months if the state did not step in.
“We’re really happy that they approved $2.5 million,” said Don Olden, the hospital’s chief executive officer. “We committed to key legislative people that we would work really hard this next year at restructuring the hospital to try and create a more sustainable business model.”
Randall Suzuka, chairman of the Wahiawa board of directors, said the hospital will make do with the state funds and cut costs to make up the difference.
“It’s like a lot of things in life,” he said. “It is what it isand you deal with it. Over the years we’ve closed OB-GYN services, our home health, our outpatient physical therapy services. We’ve had to transfer our residency program to Hawaii Pacific Health, which we could no longer support.”
In addition, the organization had to reduce the equivalent of 75 full-time workers in recent years. Administrators are planning to hire an outside consultant to evaluate finances and operations and come up with a better business model. Almost 85 percent of Wahiawa’s patients are on Medicaid or Medicare, which reimburse the hospital at a much lower rate than private insurance.
“Everything’s up for grabs,” Suzuka said. “We don’t know what that model is going to be.”
Wahiawa General started in 1944 as an outpatient clinic for plantation workers, military personnel and other Central Oahu and North Shore residents. The hospital is now licensed for 160 beds — 53 acute-care and 107 skilled-nursing. The emergency room sees more than 20,000 people per year.
