Merger must get approval of state, all three firms

LIHU’E — Before Wilcox Health System, Straub Clinic & Hospital and

Kapi’olani Health can join forces as one of the largest healthcare delivery

entities in the state, all three must first agree to the merger, said Dave

Patton, Wilcox chief executive officer.

Once all three agree — possibly by

week’s end, said Dave Patton, Wilcox chief executive officer – with the Wilcox

volunteer board that was expected to affirm its finance committee’s

recommendation and approve the merger today, the new entity, Hawai’i Pacific

Health, will still need state government approval to proceed.

An

application will be filed with the state Health Planning and Development

Agency, part of the state Department of Health. Drafting the application could

take four to six weeks, Patton said.

That process allows for public

hearings on Kaua’i and O’ahu and could take two to three months to complete

once the application is received by the state, Patton explained.

If the

application is approved by the state agency, then legal documents regarding the

merger will have to be drafted, exchanged, revised and, finally,

signed.

Patton figures it could be next July — ironically, one of the

slowest months of the year for hospitals — before Hawai’i Pacific Health is

officially launched.

The new company will own and manage all the assets of

the three merging entities with equal board representation among the three,

although all three are not bringing the same dollar value of assets to the

table.

“Wilcox will play a vital role in the management of the new

company,” Patton said.

Pat Oda, a Kaua’i native born at Wilcox Memorial

Hospital and now communications director at Kapi’olani Health, agrees.

“It’s very significant to have a Wilcox on Kaua’i,” and the merger will be

beneficial for all involved facilities, patients and communities, she

said.

“I think that the organizations believe that the future of a combined

partnership can bring greater strength and better healthcare to the community,

and to individual patients,” she said.

The three entities began talking

when Patton and Pam Dohrman, Wilcox Health System board chairwoman, went to

Honolulu to meet with Kapi’olani and Queen’s Medical Center officials to lament

the mounting financial losses, look at best practices that are working to ebb

that flow, and learn from each other, Patton said.

There, they learned

about a Queen’s plan to layoff workers and reduce the size of its corporate

office, and of Kapi’olani’s negotiations to merge with Straub and capitalize on

economies of scale to remain viable.

Patton shared details of the Wilcox

“reorganization” in February and March of this year, which eliminated 22

positions (some were vacant at the time).

“That’s helped us try to contain

this thing,” he said.

From that Honolulu meeting, negotiations were born to

throw Wilcox Health System into the merger mix, Patton said.

Staff

Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext.

224).