Hawaii has a shortage of roughly 750 physicians, and Hawaii County is experiencing a shortage of 40% of the doctors needed, according to Senate Bill 2657.
The health care staffing shortage throughout the state includes nurse practitioners, physician assistants and psychologists, according to another bill, SB 2597.
To combat those shortages, Gov. David Ige signed both measures into law on Thursday, appropriating a combined $6.75 million for the 2022-23 fiscal year to the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The signing ceremony was attended by several key health care professionals including UH President David Lassner, Queen’s Health Systems CEO Jill Hoggard Green, Hawaii Pacific Health Medical Group CEO Dr. Ledlie Chun, as well as several other health care CEOs and alumni of the John A. Burns School of Medicine.
SB 2657 addresses and assists medical education and training, while SB 2597 relates to loan repayment for graduates in health care careers.
“We’ve had significant data that shows us that expanding residency programs, especially in areas that we are having a hard time getting enough to serve, will help us deliver quality health care all across the state,” Ige said during the signing ceremony Thursday. “This is our opportunity to expand the residency program.”
Through expanding residency training on neighboring islands, the bills intend on retaining local graduates.
“We know that physicians tend to establish their practices in the communities that they do their residency,” he added. “We are really looking at ways we can attract, encourage and keep health care professionals to serve our community.”
SB 2657 allocates $6.7 million to increase student enrollment while enabling students to travel to neighboring islands for preclinical rotations. It also creates third-year rotation sites, where students remain for five months, increasing their chances of staying.
The bill also administers state loan repayment programs that place recipients in underserved communities throughout the state.
“I see these bills as a continuation of the vision of Governor Burns, who built a school in Hawaii because he wanted local people to have access to the education and the opportunity so that they stayed,” said state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, who introduced the bills. “Local kids will stay if they have the opportunity.”
SB 2597 allocates an additional $500,000 to the UH-Manoa loan repayment program to help mitigate the rising cost of medical school.
Because of the cost, health care career paths often lead to professional practice in highly specialized fields in urban areas, rather than in general practice on the neighbor islands or in underserved areas, according to the bill.
Since 2012, the loan repayment program has supported 64 recipients who work in underserved areas throughout the state.
“Of the loan repayment participants, 83% have remained in Hawaii to practice, and 70% have remained at the state where they performed their service,” said UH-Manoa representatives in a written testimony supporting the bill. “Currently, there are 25 active providers in the program with another seven waiting for funding.”
The pandemic has created additional challenges related to health care staffing in Hawaii.
“The pandemic exacerbated existing workforce shortages in the state for physicians, nurses, and other allied health care professions that are critical to providing high-quality care for all residents in Hawaii,” according to written testimony from Healthcare Association of Hawaii representatives, advocating in favor of the bill and its funding.
Both bills take effect immediately.
“Health care is complicated and dynamic, it changes all the time, and it’s expensive,” said Keohokalole. “All of these steps just make it easier for people to do what I think most of them want to do, which is to stay home.”
Email Grant Phillips at gphillips@hawaiitribune-herald.com.