State health officials yesterday said that the investigation of the merger between Wilcox Memorial Hospital and Honolulu-based Hawai‘i Pacific Health focuses on the issue of local control. “We’re trying to tease that out and figure out how much is O‘ahu
State health officials yesterday said that the investigation of the merger between Wilcox Memorial Hospital and Honolulu-based Hawai‘i Pacific Health focuses on the issue of local control.
“We’re trying to tease that out and figure out how much is O‘ahu and how much is Kaua‘i,” said Dr. David Sakamoto, director of the State Health Planning and Development Agency, speaking at the Kaua‘i Subarea Health Committee meeting.
The outcome of the review won’t come until Sakamoto is satisfied he has spoken with all relevant parties. But officials did indicate that the agency would seek to facilitate communication rather than dissolve the merger.
“We’re hearing from everyone that the goal is to improve the quality of care,” he said.
The subarea committee advised SHPDA during the 2001 approval process for the merger. That approval called for the retention of local control at the hospital and related entities, including Kaua‘i Medical Clinic.
The authorization also called for maintenance of the quality of care at Wilcox while improving the hospital’s bottom line.
It set into motion a merger that has divided Kaua‘i’s health community, leaving former colleagues standing — respectfully — at opposite sides of the meeting room.
Paul Douglass, chairman of the Wilcox Board of Directors, told the committee the merger had a positive effect: “We’re better than we were and better than we would have been on our own,” he said, asserting that the board provides local control.
Three Kaua‘i members also sit on the HPH board, he said.
“There are challenges, but these are challenges that are facing the entire industry,” he said. “We have to run it like a business.”
Dr. Lee Evslin, former CEO of Wilcox and a one-time supporter of the merger, painted a different picture: “Morale is bad, doctors are leaving and the deal we signed up for is not the deal we have,” he said.
Dr. Thomas Williamson, a family practitioner at KMC and also chair of the clinic’s board, defended the merger, saying doctors who left did so for personal reasons.
“The rate of doctors leaving is at this point average for a community of this size,” he said.
But Dr. Peter Kim, a former KMC physician, said that the merger brought low salaries that drove some doctors away.
“We’re losing a lot of subspecialists,” he said. “The health care system on Kaua‘i is deteriorating.”
Kim co-chairs Concerned Citizens for Kauai’s Healthcare Future, a citizens’ group that is pushing for settlement of the Wilcox nurses’ strike, as well as broader changes at the hospital.
Evslin, also a member of the group, asked the subcommittee and SHPDA to audit Wilcox finances, including administrative costs that he said were not mentioned during the merger process.
Sakamoto said money seemed to be a problem, emphasizing the challenges that the health care industry faces in Hawai‘i, where he said commercial insurance premiums are the lowest in the country.
“It looks like there’s not enough money in the system,” he said.
Raymond Vara, executive vice president of HPH and the chief executive of hospital operations, said HPH has to implement changes that allow it to stretch money across the islands — a task that means the provider faces higher costs than Mainland hospitals.
The meeting came as negotiators for Wilcox and the Hawai‘i Nurses Association tried to settle on a contract that will bring an end to an 82-day nurses’ strike.
“We are committed to ending the strike and getting things back to normal,” Clark told the committee.
Strike negotiations ended yesterday without agreement, according to D.Q. Jackson, a negotiator for HNA and also a Wilcox nurse. The two sides will meet again on Friday.
• Charlotte Woolard, business writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or cwoolard@kauaipubco.com.
