A Queen’s Health Systems administrator Tuesday made it clear to Ewa Beach lawmakers that the state’s largest private hospital system will not be able to open emergency room operations before the scheduled opening of the new Queen’s Medical Center West Oahu in spring 2014.
The lawmakers and area residents have been hoping Queen’s could open the emergency room earlier to fill the void left by Hawaii Medical Center West’s closure in December 2011.
Queen’s has since purchased the property and is undertaking renovations.
When pressed by City Council members Ron Menor and Kymberly Pine at an informational briefing Tuesday, Susan Murray, Queen’s senior vice president for the West Oahu region and chief operating officer for the new hospital, said the company will not be able to open up a new emergency room first.
For "a full, well-run emergency department … a certain number of folks will need in-patient beds, a certain number will need surgery, a certain number will need high-end diagnostic equipment in place," Murray said.
Construction workers are doing double shifts, and part of the reason the schedule can be so aggressive is because the hospital is vacant, she said.
"To do anything other than that would not provide safe emergency care, or the highest quality that we want to provide, and also would hold up the ultimate opening of the hospital."
Queen’s plan is to "triple in size" the emergency department at the facility, a move that will include increasing the number of physicians to 23 from 10, she said.
Murray said Queen’s is doing other things to help meet the West Oahu community’s health needs, including the reopening of a Diagnostic Laboratory Systems office and, on Oct. 1, a medical imaging laboratory to help physicians in the medical office building adjoining the hospital.
There will also be within the office building a "multispecialty, time-share" facility for doctors in different disciplines to go out to West Oahu to hold office hours for patients living in the area, Murray said.
Other members of Oahu’s medical community also were invited to discuss the emergency services situation in West Oahu. All medical centers reported significant increases in emergency room visitors.
Tripler Army Medical Center began opening its emergency room to trauma patients — military personnel and dependents — in January 2012. It also receives civilian trauma patients when other facilities are on "reroute" status.
Tripler officials said Tuesday that while sequestration will have an impact on its overall operations, it is not expected to affect emergency room operations for those with actual emergencies.
Some, such as those who could have been handled at the "urgent care" level, may have to wait longer, said Stephanie Rush, Tripler public affairs officer.
Deputy Health Director David Sakamoto said response time for ambulances to reach West Oahu residents have "stayed about the same." Total transit time, which measures how long it takes for an ambulance to pick up a patient, transport the person to the hospital and then return to its base, has gone up 15 percent "because they had to go farther."
