Plan for clinics will help patients navigate services

The path to getting treatment at the Kalihi-Palama Health Center can involve a lot of zigzagging.

The center on North King Street consists of four buildings. There’s the main clinic at 915 N. King, on the makai side. It’s adjoined to another old building behind Oku­hara Foods Inc.

Across the street and down a bit are two other clinics, within a half-block of each other.

Getting directions on where to go for various services can pre­sent another hurdle as patients speak 13 different languages and interpreters are often dashing from building to building to assist with translation, said Dr. Emmanuel Kintu, CEO of the center.

Kintu estimates that the center loses thousands of patients yearly due of the inconvenience of having to cross a busy city street to get from one clinic to another.

"Just that puts them off," he said.

KPHC is in need of consolidation and expansion to better serve its 24,000 clients, Kintu said.

"We really need space. We’re too, too, too, too crowded here. … It’s miraculous that we’re able to do what we do with the space we have."

A $9 million effort to ease crowded conditions and improve logistics tied to getting around the center is now in the works.

The new center will house adult medicine, pediatrics, dental care, optometry, a pharmacy and laboratory services. In addition, it will include the Women Infants and Children federal nutrition program.

"The huge plus is the convenience," Kintu said. "We’ll be able to tell Mom, ‘Go upstairs and get checked out and take little Johnny with you.’ That is the most significant piece here."

Many women attending the WIC program, now in the Ten­sho Kotai Jingu Kyo Hawaii Dojo, 888 N. King, find it difficult to cross King Street with toddlers in tow.

The center opened in 1975 as a health clinic in Kaumakapili Church’s basement. It was developed by parishioners who saw how poverty and language and cultural barriers prevented Native Hawaiians and Asian/Pacific Island immigrants from getting access to primary health and social services.

KPHC moved out of Kaumakapili in 1994 and became an independent nonprofit five years later but still maintains ties with the Hawaiian church. (KPHC also runs a clinic in Chinatown and two more at homeless shelters on Kohou and Kaa­ahi streets.)

Over the next several years, a new Kalihi-Palama Health Center will take shape a few blocks closer to the downtown area. A groundbreaking at the site, 710 N. King St., on the corner of Pua Lane next to St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church, took place last month, and the first wave of construction is slated to get underway soon.

KPHC is leasing the new site for 30 years from the church, with options allowing up to 50 years.

The first phase of construction on a 12,000-square-foot lot includes renovating an old blue building — site of the former King’s Market — and adding on a second story, elevator tower and entrance lobby. The upgrades are expected to be completed by early next year.

Construction of another two-story building, which is slated to include a community center and commercial-grade kitchen to replace St. Elizabeth’s Shim Hall, is scheduled for completion at the end of 2015, pending the issuance of an environmental assessment and permits, Kintu said.

"We will make sure the space is equal to or better than Shim Hall," Kintu said. "The church will have first rights, and we will have secondary rights. … This is a win-win-win opportunity. We need the space at different times."

KPHC already uses the church’s parking lot for its staff, so "it reduces the footprint of the project," he added.

In about four years the project’s second phase may include demolishing the old Shim Hall and development on an additional 5,000 square feet, where the hall and a small garden now stand, depending on the availability of resources. KPHC has received $5 million in funding, most of it from the Legislature.

Also pitching in are First Hawaiian Bank, the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation, and other donors, Kintu said.

KPHC now leases five suites at the dojo, but won’t need to do so when work on the new buildings wraps up. In about four years the current main office, 915 N. King St., will be used as an adult day care center, with some health services.

The site at 952 King St., which now houses a pharmacy, behavioral health treatment and diabetes education areas, lab services and some adult medicine, will be turned into a community training and development center. It will also serve as a place for the Hono­lulu Community Action Program after-school program, which currently operates out of Shim Hall.

Kintu, who joined KPHC eight years ago, is looking forward to the day the doors open at the new Kalihi-Palama Health Center.

Over the years, the center has contended with the crowded conditions by repeatedly reconfiguring building space and juggling services. But such fixes are not obstacle-free.

These days, for example, in the main clinic there’s little privacy afforded patients during the intake process because the waiting area is so close by. In addition, tiny exam rooms are squeezed into every available corner, Kintu pointed out as he walked through winding corridors in a maze of cramped offices.

And while acutely sick patients now get priority treatment, healthier patients usually "can’t get an appointment till way down the road" because of overcrowding.