Column: Queen’s physicians deliver outstanding care for Hawaii

The mission of The Queen’s Health Systems is to fulfill the intent of Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV to provide in perpetuity quality health care services to improve the well-being of Native Hawaiians and all the people of Hawaii.

I’m proud to have been elected as the chief of staff at The Queen’s Medical Center and to represent the 1,500 physicians and other health professionals on our medical staff. I have practiced obstetrics and gynecology at Queen’s for 32 years as a private practitioner. I am proud to follow in the footsteps of my father who also served the patients at Queen’s and our community as an ob/gyn.

I know I speak for many of my colleagues when I say it is an honor and a privilege to serve as a physician at Queen’s.

Because of the resources and support Queen’s has dedicated over its 160-year history, it has been able to attract excellent physicians, nurses and other talented staff to provide the best care possible to the people of Hawaii. Queen’s is also a major teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine to support the training of future physicians for our state.

Queen’s as a system serves over 150,000 emergency room visits annually, over 30,000 inpatients, and over two million outpatient visits. It also annually provides nearly $200 million in community benefits to the people of Hawaii, which include $40 million to support 66% of the homeless hospital care in the state.

The work of our physicians and staff is truly outstanding. Queen’s has nationally renowned physicians in multiple specialties to include cancer, cardiovascular disease, neuroscience, orthopedics, surgery, emergency medicine and trauma, and behavioral health medicine. Quality and patient safety have always been our highest priority.

For the past 160 years, the staff of Queen’s has strived to fulfill the vision of the founders by developing services and programs to better serve Hawaii’s people. The recent allegation of mismanagement and loss of physicians is misleading and without merit. Queen’s and its medical groups have only grown, adding physicians and other providers to support the demand for health-care services.

High-quality and safe patient care continues to remain our daily focus. At Queen’s, our goal is to achieve positive outcomes by working together as a highly engaged team of physicians and staff, committed to providing our patients with the best care possible.

No organization is perfect. But by all external benchmarks and reviews, The Queen’s Medical Center is rated as the best hospital in Hawaii by U.S. News & World Report and ranked among the top 100 by Newsweek Magazine out of more than 5,000 hospitals in the nation. It is the only Level I trauma center and the only organ transplant center in the Pacific region. It has achieved Magnet Designation by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, recognizing nursing excellence.

As physicians, we are grateful for the resources and support Queen’s provides that enable us to serve our patients with excellence and compassion. We should all be proud that Hawaii is well-served by an institution like Queen’s that is committed to delivering high quality and safe care to all patients, regardless of their ability to pay.

Robb Ohtani, M.D., is chief of staff at The Queen’s Medical Center.