Computers and court: Double whammy for DOE

The state Department of Education will need to dig ever deeper to Strive HI, as it encourages its nearly 180,000 students to do. The latest glitch in DOE operations is the lingering, two-week computer crash that has stopped payments to its vendors. The 1990s-era computer system that pays bills for goods and serv­ices crashed during an Oct. 6 upgrade and is still down — halting payments for such needs as school supplies, construction contracts and school-level consultants.

Already struggling with that setback, the DOE got hit with another on Friday: the Hawaii Supreme Court invalidating the “school surcharge” constitutional question that the DOE had supported for its school-funding potential. Major reboots needed, all the way around.

Rethinking a continuum of health care

More walk-in clinics and urgent care facilities are surfacing here as more patients — led by millennials — are forgoing the continuum-of-care route anchored by a primary care physician. Nationwide, nearly half of 18- to 29-year-olds do not have a primary care provider.

While securing a long-term spot on a doctor’s patient roster is idealistic, it’s not always realistic. Right now, Hawaii is several hundred physicians short of what a similar community has on the mainland. And the largest single shortage area: primary care docs. With that deficit projected to get worse, it makes sense to fold these quick-fix options into a still-evolving continuum concept.