By Tribune Herald staff
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KEALAKEKUA – Gov. Josh Green joined Kona Community Hospital officials and state legislators Monday for a special blessing ceremony to celebrate the completion of the hospital’s newly expanded pharmacy.

This marks a significant milestone in health care access for West Hawaii residents, according to hospital officials.

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The expansion includes a new “compounding suite” that will allow KCH to safely prepare medications — including chemotherapy drugs — on site at the 94-bed hospital.

“It will bring important efficiencies to our operations and, more importantly, better serve our patients by eliminating the need to outsource this critical service,” said Clayton McGhan, West Hawaii Region CEO.

Joining Green at the blessing ceremony were Senate President Ron Kouchi, Sen. Dru Kanuha, Rep. Kirstin Kahaloa and Sen. Tim Richards.

The new facility supports longer beyond-use dates, which improves efficiency and reduces labor and material costs, according to KCH.

It also strengthens KCH’s emergency preparedness by increasing the volume of compounded medications on site and enhances KCH’s ability to provide oncology and other specialized treatments.

“Today marks more than just the completion of a construction project. It represents a major advancement in how we care for our community,” said Rick Cleave, KCH interim regional director of pharmacy.

With this expansion, patients who previously needed to travel to Hilo or Oahu for treatment can instead receive care closer to home.

The $2.3 million pharmacy expansion was funded by the state Legislature and Green’s administration. The new compounding suite is expected to be fully operational by the end of the summer.

“It’s very important because to be able to compound medications here in the community — and they can do about twice as much now with this expansion — people will get their therapy and their treatment much faster, and that’s important because going off of the neighbor islands to get care on Oahu is difficult, and a lot of people have to wait for care,” Green said. “We don’t want them to have to wait because they get better faster and heal faster with this kind of a plan, so it’s really a big positive change.”