A Native Hawaiian health clinic in Waimea has plans to move out of the rented commercial space it currently occupies and build a new facility on two acres of homestead land.
The parcel is managed by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and is leased by a subsidiary organization of the Waimea Hawaiian Homesteaders’ Association.
A draft environmental assessment published Tuesday found the relocation of the Kipuka o ke Ola Clinic — also called the KOKO Clinic — from U‘ilani Plaza on Mamalahoa Highway to two acres of undeveloped agricultural land leased by the Waimea Nui Community Development Corporation will have no significant negative environmental impact.
The two-acre parcel is part of 161 acres already leased by Waimea Nui.
“We had originally hoped to break ground in 2023 before the pandemic happened,” said Claren Kealoha-Beaudet, a clinical psychologist and the clinic’s CEO. “The pandemic happened. That put us back maybe about 2 1/2 years.”
Kealoha-Beaudet said the clinic received “a small grant from DHHL” for engineering and architectural plans.” She added that her organization “would like to be able to break ground in two years.”
The site of the planned clinic, which would be a 9,600-square-foot single-story structure along Poliahu Alanui on homestead lands, is about a 2.5-mile drive from the current location.
The land is completely undeveloped, with no county water or wastewater service.
According to Kealoha-Beaudet, however, Poliahu Alanui “has electricity and water, and also fiber optic (cable) for internet.”
“So, we’d by tying into a system that is already in existence, although the septic system and all of that has to be done,” she said.
The clinic, an initiative of the homesteaders’ association, opened in 2014. In 2017, it achieved federally recognized rural health clinic status and gets funding from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare.
Kealoha-Beaudet said the clinic is the only federally recognized rural health clinic in the state, which means the facility isn’t affiliated with a hospital or larger health care organization. “Because we’re a federally qualified rural health clinic, we bill you based on your income if you don’t qualify for Medicaid or Medicare.
“We do primary care, we do clinical psychology, psychiatry — and we also do indigenous medicine,” she said, such as lomilomi and la‘au lapa‘au.
In addition, the move would allow the clinic to expand its Ulu Laukahi Program, which is designed to address chronic care disease management, especially among Native Hawaiians.
Kealoha-Beaudet said the indigenous population is about twice as likely as non-natives to suffer chronic conditions such as hypertension, heart disease and diabetes.
“We currently serve about 3,000 patients, of which about 1,400 are Native Hawaiian,” Kealoha-Beaudet said, which means Native Hawaiians comprise about 47% of the clinic’s patients. She said Native Hawaiians make up about a quarter of Waimea’s population.
“What we intended to do, we’ve actually done,” she said. “Our main priority was to create an access point of health care delivery … for the indigenous community in Waimea. It really is based on understanding the complexities of Native Hawaiian health.
“We currently have three primary care providers, two clinical psychologists, one psychiatrist and one indigenous health care provider.”
According to Kealoha-Beaudet, the majority of the clinic’s primary care patients reside nearby, while the psychiatric and mental health patients are less likely to be North Hawaii residents.
“The Big Island has a shortage of psychiatric services and all mental health services. Our psychiatrist sees people from all around the island,” she said, and added the clinic is currently seeking a behavioral health psychologist.
According to the draft document, the expansion would allow the clinic to add an additional five full-time positions to its staff and increase its treatment capacity by an additional 800 patients.
A public comment period on the draft EA will conclude on Dec. 8. To view the document and submit comments, visit dhhl.hawaii.gov/po/hawaii.
Kealoha-Beaudet said DHHL’s budget doesn’t include capital improvement funding for construction of the clinic, but is hoping for DHHL support to find money somewhere in the state budget.
“We’re going to be submitting a (grant-in-aid proposal) for the next year, and hopefully, they’ll be throwing something our way to get us started,” she said.
“We’ve been ready for this for a long time. We just need it to happen.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.