Maui’s cardiac center is both necessary and successful

The question has been posed on whether Maui’s 160,000-plus residents and its over-2 million yearly visitors deserve access to the state-of-the-art services and facilities that the Maui Memorial Medical Center (MMMC) Outpatient Clinic’s cardiac program provides.

A recent article attempted to cast a shadow over MMMC’s heart program achievements based solely on profits (“Lack of sick tickers saps hospital,” Star-Advertiser, July 13). Besides being filled with biased statements and misleading information, the article glossed over one crucial point: MMMC’s cardiac program and everything that surrounds it centers around saving lives — something it has done very successfully. In fact, it has grown into one of the best programs in the state.

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in America. MMMC’s heart program was developed to address this very real threat to the health of our community. Also very real are the consequences that our community would suffer without the program — physical, emotional and financial.

When medical emergencies involve the heart, every minute that passes is heart muscle loss. The national standard of care for “door to balloon” time (the time from patient arrival at the facility to inflation of the balloon opening the blocked artery) for heart attacks is 90 minutes. The air ambulance takes hours for transport. Many patients do not have that kind of time. And even if they do, every minute spent waiting has devastating, permanent effects that these patients will need to live with after survival.

Having an on-island solution also deters patients from delaying care because of the burden and costs of travel, which potentially saves them from more expensive emergency care and possibly death.

The financial burden alone is life-changing for many patients and their families who must pay for travel and lodging for sometimes weeks at a time, to be near their loved ones.

Yes, there is obviously a financial aspect to building a state-of-the art facility and program. It takes time and money to build something successful. For reasons beyond our control, our caseload has been less than anticipated. But the program does not lose money, or cost MMMC any additional money.

In fact, it is one of our most profitable services. Before we started our heart program we utilized air ambulance services to transport 350 to 400 patients per year to Honolulu for cardiac-related diagnosis. At an estimated $10,000 per flight, our patients and their families endured significant expense for care away from home.

Additionally, the heart program has helped elevate the level of health care on Maui. Before full cardiovascular service, our hospital was operating “below the standard of care” for a population our size. Our facility had limited coverage of vascular and thoracic surgery, angioplasty and other catheterization lab procedures.

Since the start of our full program in 2012, we’ve met or exceeded national benchmarks (Society of Thoracic Surgeons) in quality and safety in virtually all metrics. The heart program has been an integral part of the necessary growth and development of MMMC — to adapt to the Affordable Care Act, and most importantly the growing needs of our community. Without the cardiac services program, our community would suffer a traumatic impact on overall care.

Is there any financial calculation to how much a life is worth? Don’t Maui residents and their families deserve the same level of care as Oahu residents? Why should we settle for a lesser standard of health care?

Whether it is one life or 1 million lives, our obligation to provide safe, timely care is paramount to any clinical services we provide.

So, despite the many challenges that our region’s leaders faced, their commitment to the health of our community led them in the right direction with this project.

I commend their perseverance. Many lives were saved, and there can be no value placed on that.