State might give Wahiawa hospital more funds

Lawmakers are considering pumping more money into the struggling Wahiawa General Hospital to keep it afloat, provided it discontinues acute-care services and focuses solely on emergency, geriatric and long-term care.

If acute-care services were to end, the closest hospitals to offer them would be Queen’s Medical Center- West Oahu and Pali Momi Medical Center, both about 20 minutes away.

“We’re trying to come to an understanding of what scope of acute services would be fitting. We’re hoping that’s a point of negotiations and discussions,” said Doug Degraaf, interim CEO of Wahiawa General, which is now managed by Community Hospital Corp., a nonprofit based in Plano, Texas, which specializes in small hospital turnarounds.

“We want the acute care here to fit a typical community hospital. We don’t aspire to be a large medical center … with all the high-end serv­ices,” he said Friday.

The 160-bed hospital — with 53 acute-care beds and 107 long-term or nursing home beds — is seeking $8 million in short-term “bridge funding” until it can develop a sustainable business plan, he said. The medical center, which received $2.5 million in legislative funding last year to continue operations, is projected to lose about $2 million this year.

Half of the money would be used to upgrade aging equipment and facilities — including replacing the roof and the air-conditioning and heating systems — and half would go toward operations, he said.

“Given some of the management and operational changes we’ve made, we’re looking for some state support for a short-term basis,” Degraaf said.

Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Mililani Mauka-Waipio Acres-Wheeler-Wahiawa) said Friday that lawmakers want the hospital to develop a sustainable business model so that it doesn’thave to continually rely on state funding.

“It has been coming in for subsidies for 15 years,” he said. “The acute-care facility should probably be diminished or greatly reduced in size. The bill is a vehicle so that Wahiawa General can get bridge funding until they can have a sustainable business model.” (The bill is SB 1308.)

The hospital, which has about 520 employees, expects to renew acquisition talks with both the Queen’s Medical Center and Hawaii Pacific Health — parent company of Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, Pali Momi Medical Center, Straub Medical Center and Wilcox Medical Center on Kauai.

“We have invited both back to the table to discuss possible affiliation arrangements,” he said. “The last talks were maybe a year ago, and we feel positive changes were made, so we’re trying to engage both of them.”

A deal could include 28 acres to expand Wahiawa General at the site of the proposed Koa Ridge residential development project. Developer Castle & Cooke set aside the land years ago for a new hospital to replace the aging Wahiawa facility.

“Koa Ridge may be a location that doesn’t necessarily require a hospital, but medical services that involve more outpatient services, physician offices and clinic- type space,” Degraaf said. “That’s why dialogue with those two systems is important. We want to talk about Wahiawa General Hospital but also the opportunity to expand some of the services to Koa Ridge.”

State Health Department Director Virginia Pressler said she is hopeful that new leadership will be able to find a private partner to sustain operations in the Wahiawa community.

“Last year (the Legislature) gave them $2.5 million in order to come up with a sustainable business plan, which they still don’t have,” she said. “It’s very difficult for a smaller hospital today to survive by itself. It needs to partner with somebody. It doesn’t work for the state to keep subsidizing the current system.”

Wahiawa General started in 1944 as an outpatient clinic for plantation workers, military personnel and other Central Oahu and North Shore residents. The emergency room sees more than 20,000 people annually.