Supporters push state for $3M in aid to Wahiawa hospital
Supporters and staff of Wahiawa General Hospital turned out in force Wednesday to ask lawmakers to fund a $3 million bailout of the private, nonprofit facility, which has been struggling to stay afloat during the past nine years of increasing financial strains.
The hospital began in 1944 as an outpatient clinic for plantation workers, military personnel and rural Central Oahu residents, and it has grown into a 57-bed acute care hospital with an emergency room and a 107-bed, long-term care skilled nursing facility.
R. Don Olden, chief executive officer of the hospital, said revenue at Wahiawa in 2015 abruptly dropped by $7.5 million after the Queen’s Medical Center West opened in May.
The hospital, which is the largest private employer in Wahiawa, has had to cut its staffing by the equivalent of about 75 employees and needs state support, Olden said.
“We cut our budget by $9 million, and we are still at a point where we are running a deficit,” Olden said. “If we don’t obtain assistance from the state, we’re going to be forced to further eliminate programs, services, or reduce hours of operation and consider closing our doors.”
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A standing-room-only crowd of hospital supporters and employees applauded as people testified before lawmakers about the value of the hospital to the Wahiawa and North Shore communities. One carried a sign imploring lawmakers, “DO NOT Send Us To the MORGUE.”
Many in the crowd were hospital employees, including Paul Seery, a radiology technologist. Seery recounted an incident several months ago in which a man appeared in the hospital emergency room with the right side of his throat cut. He described it as “just one case which is typical of what I see almost daily.”
“He was going down fast,” Seery told the committee. “It was so bad that the guy probably flat-lined three times, and the great emergency room staff at Wahiawa, we worked on him for two hours at least.”
He added: “For two hours, everybody was sweating. We just didn’t give up, and I’ve seen that kind of effort many, many times there. Many, many people that I’ve seen come through there would not make it, won’t make it to any other hospital.”
Olden said Wahiawa General serves a largely low-income and elderly population, with about 85 percent of the hospital’s patients on Medicare or Medicaid. The hospital loses money on those patients and does not have enough private-pay patients to offset those losses, he said.
The House Health Committee approved House Concurrent Resolution 118 and House Resolution 73, which urge Gov. David Ige “to provide financial assistance to WGH in a sufficient amount to enable it to operate while developing a new business model.”
9 responses to “Supporters push state for $3M in aid to Wahiawa hospital”
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What, we we wold that Obama Care would solve all such problems. It’s true the N Shore has dome to depend on the ER due to its closeness. They do a great job with the staph epidemic too. They might try to get funded using treating drug OD since drugs are also epidemic on the N Shore and vicinity due to you know who.
Make any bailout contingent on sizing the hospital service to their revenue or this becomes HHSC
The state is trying to privatize the current hospital system. Why would they pickup and add another hospital?
Tax dollars spent to keep Wahiawa Hospital going are well spent. Much more than the requested amount will be saved than the costs associated if the hospital closes. Rural hospitals are regularly funded by the state and Wahiawa should be added to the list. The hospital provides much needed care for the indigent and lost leaders like medicaid. The ER room is a critical asset. There are not enough long term care beds on the Island to adsorb the 100 + beds that the hospital keeps full. Please let yur representatives know how important this facility is.
turn it in to a ER only hospital
Politicians need to ask themselves, How would it be if my family member needed ER care and this hospital was the closest. The example the ER personnel gave about the man who came in with his throat slashed is a great example of why this hospital is needed on this side of the island. It could have been anyone who might be involved in a accident here on the Northside. Living on Farrington Hwy. I hear ER vehicles almost on a daily basis heading out to Mokuleia.
How much is a life worth? Isn’t the reason our elected leaders are in office is to protect and help preserve the electorates well being? We need to move forward not backwards. How does eliminating a hospital help a community?
Unfortunately, you just can’t put full service hospitals everywhere simply for occasional, but of course very important, health issues. If you want the closest best medical seevuces, move next to, or near, Queens…….
There will never be enough money for what you say. It’s not sustainable, just like MAUI hospital putting in super pensive cardiac programs, that never paid for themselves. That and other programs just not intended for smaller populations, is what brought the Maui hospital down
Stay within your means, fit to your revenues, patient usage, and you survive to provide services.
This hospital is a disaster. It should be shut down. My friend was taken to the emergency room there since it was the closest. It was about ten at night and they told him “come back tomorrow”. No one could believe it. He refused to leave and they finally admitted him. The doctor put a cast on the next day and he had to remain there for four or five days after that. Don’t go to this place unless all you want to be treated for is a minor cold.
I forgot to mention that the place is a dirty dump. The only good thing is that the parking is free although you have to hope that no one breaks into your car or steals it.