Hospital stay now like being at home

It’s a welcome development that Kaiser Permanente has decided to allow 24-hour patient visitation at its Moanalua Medical Center & Clinic.

The state’s largest health maintenance organization apparently determined that patients heal quicker when surrounded by family and friends, regardless of the time of day.

Previously the hospital’s visitation hours were from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., which left a large block of time each day when patients had to endure their conditions alone — not counting the hospital staff.

The new "family centered" policy was recommended by a committee of 11 patient volunteers, and kudos to Kaiser for heeding its advice.

Other hospitals in Hawaii might wish to consider expanding their visitation hours as well.

Another warning about rising seas

Is the Earth getting warmer? Are humans causing this change?

These concerns took on a new sense of foreboding with the release of a draft report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization of several hundred scientists, which answered both questions with an emphatic, "Yes."

Seas could rise by more than 3 feet if man-made emissions are not brought under control, the panel warned.

For people who living in coastal areas, the consequences could be catastrophic. A presidential task force report released Monday suggested a prudent response: Include climate extremes and sea level change in long-range development planning.

Surely such planning can’t hurt for Hawaii, which has such beautiful coastal areas to protect.