A new outpatient health care center is being planned for West Hawaii.
The center is the result of a partnership between The Queen’s Health Systems and the West Hawaii Region of Hawaii Health Systems Corp. that was announced Wednesday during a press conference with Gov. Josh Green in Honolulu.
The public-private partnership has asked the state for $50 million in capital improvement funding for the construction of an approximately 50,000-square-foot outpatient care center in Kailua-Kona that will be built on three to five acres of land donated by Queen’s to HHSC, the state’s public hospital system.
The new facility will be adjacent to a new Queen’s hospital that was announced last year, according to a press release.
“By joining forces, Queen’s and HHSC are expanding access to primary and specialty care, reducing travel and wait times, and strengthening the health care workforce in West Hawaii,” Green said in the release.
Green said at the press conference that the project would also create high-paying health care job opportunities for the West Hawaii region. Jason Chang, president and chief executive officer of The Queen’s Health Systems, estimated 350 to 450 new jobs would be created in the outpatient care center.
“This partnership represents a proud moment for Queen’s, because this is going to provide more care to the people of Hawaii,” Chang said, explaining that the collaboration has been developing over the past year.
Clayton McGhan, chief executive officer of the HHSC West Hawaii Region, said the outpatient center is expected to be constructed in four years once all funding is secured. Chang said the goal of the partner organizations is “to see their first patient in the fifth year” of the project.
McGhan said that the facility will require “quite a bit of infrastructure that has to be built out…and some of those efforts are already underway.” Chang said an architect is close to being selected.
“For a long time, our region has struggled with many different challenges, like physician shortages and limited access to care,” McGhan said. “By teaming up with the Queen’s Health Systems and the state of Hawaii, we finally have a coordinated, sustainable way to tackle these issues together. And the good news is: It’s already working.”
McGhan and Chang explained that the collaboration already has increased access to care in West Hawaii as they “leverage each other’s strengths” by sharing providers who can offer services closer to patients’ homes when they would previously have to send the patient off-island.
Chang said the goal is for the outpatient care center to be a “one-stop hub” with access to modernized intensive care units, laboratories and a helipad when emergency transfers are necessary.
When asked if an expansion of health services will also reach East Hawaii areas like Puna, the governor said the public-private partnership already is working toward establishing a facility, and that billionaire philanthropist Marc Benioff likely will match money put aside for it last year.
Green said HHSC and The Queen’s System are “the right partners for this project,” and that the state owes rural communities skilled practitioners and modern facilities.
“Every part of our state has rural providers, and if they leave, you have health care deserts,” Green said. “We’re doing the exact opposite here: We’re creating a health care oasis on the Big Island.”
Email Kyveli Diener at kdiener@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
