Update on West Maui Hospital to be presented in Council committee on Monday

/

The Maui County Council’s Human Concerns & Parks Committee will host a discussion Monday, Oct. 17, 2022 on the current status of the West Maui Hospital and Medical Center …

By Dakota Grossman dgrossman@mauinews.com | October 12, 2022

West Maui Hospital site in Kāʻanapali, West Maui.

https://mauinow.com/2022/10/12/update-on-west-maui-hospital-to-be-presented-in-council-committee-on-monday/

Some say certificate of need stands in way of local hospitals

/

Law requires medical facilities to prove need before being built …

By Dakota Grossman dgrossman@mauinews.com | November 16, 2021

The site of the proposed West Maui Hospital and Medical Center is shown in 2018. The project has long been delayed due to a lack of funding as well as certificate-of-need laws, which require health care investors to prove to the state that their proposed new medical facilities or services are needed before the state will let them be built or offered. Some experts say the regulation is preventing facilities from being built and contributing to Hawaii’s health care shortage. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2021/11/certificate-of-need-stands-in-way-of-west-maui-hospital/

West Side community celebrates hospital groundbreaking

/
West Side community celebrates hospital groundbreaking

The groundbreaking ceremony and blessing included some of the construction crew that will be working on the West Maui Hospital and Medical Center project. Maui Mayor Alan M. Arakawa (front row, third from right) and hospital developer Brian Hoyle (front row, second from right) enjoy this long-awaited day. PHOTOS BY CINDY SCHUMACHER.

Read More

Check out our feature in Keola Magazine!

/

Just north of Kā‘anapali, on land that is part of the Kā‘anapali 2020 community plan, sits 14.994 acres of land between the Honoapi‘ilani Highway and Kā‘anapali Coffee Farms. This site will soon become the first hospital built in Hawai‘i in 20 years, and West Maui’s connection to healthcare; a 24-hour emergency room and hospital with 25 critical access beds, plus three operating rooms.  Unlike large state-run hospitals, this small private facility will be able to achieve a “critical access” designation from the Federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Under this designation, cost based reimbursement for services to Medicare and Medicaid patients will give the West Maui Hospital business model a high probability for success.  Adjacent to the small hospital there will be two other facilities: a 40-bed Skilled Nursing Facility, a separate 40-bed Assisted Living Facility, as well as a future 40-bed Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Facility. West Maui residents will also benefit from two new medical office building; clinics on the hospital campus, so that physician and hospital services are available at one central location, midway between LāhaināKā‘anapali and Honokōwai Kapalua areas.  Currently, it takes up to one hour to drive to Maui Memorial Medical Center in Wailuku; an ambulance can make the run in 30 minutes in good weather. The single lane highway that winds over the Pali cliffs between Lāhainā and Wailuku can be impassable during rockslides or run-away brush fires, and there is no safe alternate route. For West Maui residents and visitors, access to immediate critical care in Lāhainā could make the difference between life and death—especially for victims of stroke, heart attack, or major trauma. The community has supported this hospital project since its inception in 2002.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE!

Determination Letter from the IRS

/

Determination Letter from the IRS

The West Maui Hospital Foundation, Inc. received its positive Determination Letter from the IRS. As of October 9, 2014, the West Maui Hospital Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) exempt organization. The Foundation is the sole entity responsible for raising money for the development, construction, and on-going operation of the West Maui Hospital. The Foundation will be hosting a kick-off fundraiser in 2015. Details of the kick-off fundraiser will soon follow.

READ HERE

Planning Commission Site Visit and Community Meeting on November 19, 2014

/

Planning Commission Site Visit and Community Meeting on November 19, 2014

On Wednesday, November 19, 2014, at 4pm the Maui Planning Commission will be conducting a site visit at the West Maui Hospital and Medical Center’s site off of Kaka’alaneo Road in Lahaina.

The site visit will be followed by a public hearing for the entitlements for the West Maui Hospital and Medical Center at the Lahaina Senior Center at 6pm located at 788 Pauoa St, in Lahaina.

Any and all members of the community are encouraged to attend to show support of the West Maui Hospital and Medical Center by either attending and/or testifying at the hearing.

Urban Design Review Board Meeting on November 5, 2014

/

Urban Design Review Board Meeting on November 5, 2014

The West Maui Hospital and Medical Center is pleased to inform the Community of West Maui that there will be an Urban Design Review Board (“UDRB”) meeting to review the project with a focus on the design aspect.

At this meeting, the UDRB will make a determination as to whether or not to approve the project design guidelines as submitted by the West Maui Hospital and Medical Center. This meeting is open for public testimony. Any members of the community are encouraged to attend and either show such support by attendance and/or testimony.

The UDRB meeting will be in the Planning Department Conference Room located at 250 S. High Street in Wailuku at 10am on Wednesday, November 5, 2014.

Hospital coming to West Maui; Will Doctors Come Too?

/

By CHRIS SUGIDONO - Staff Writer (csugidono@mauinews.com) , The Maui News

LAHAINA - Developers of the long-awaited West Maui Hospital and Medical Center expect to begin construction in the next 13 to 14 months, but residents and local medical officials wonder where the new hospital will find the physicians and the money to pay them.

"Where are they coming from?" Kaanapali resident Roger Ross asked during a community meeting Monday attended by at least a hundred people at the Lahaina Civic Center. "It's a serious question because there's only a handful of specialists on this island and most of them live on the other side because they're on-call at Maui Memorial (Medical Center)."

Wesley Lo, Maui regional chief executive officer of Hawaii Health System Corp. of which Maui Memorial is a part, said that the new hospital could face high costs in employing salaried staff physicians.

Brian Hoyle, president of Newport Hospital Corp., shakes hands with Maui residents Bob Pure (from left), J.J. Elkin and Lina Prudencio after a community meeting for the West Maui Hospital and Medical Center on Monday night at the Lahaina Civic Center. Newport Hospital is the developer of the project, and Hoyle is a board member of the West Maui Hospital Foundation that will run the facility.

"Maybe 10 years ago, Maui Memorial didn't employ any physicians," Lo said. "Physicians were in practice for themselves. Now the landscape is changing, where the independents are retiring and the new, younger ones rather be salaried and paid by somebody.

"We have to pay the salary and run the business for them."

Brian Hoyle, president of Newport Hospital Corp., which is developing the new hospital, said that the new hospital is not focused on hiring specialists and that it is "premature" to speculate on a budget for employing doctors. He played down comparisons with Maui Memorial.

As a critical-access hospital that serves a rural community, the new hospital would be limited to 25 acute-care inpatient beds - far fewer than the 200 beds at Maui Memorial.

"It's not a comparison. It's a completely different hospital," Hoyle said. "We're a small facility and community-based model. We're not looking at a salary-hospital model, but we will have salaried positions."

Charlie Slaton, chief executive officer of Critical Access HealthCare LLC, which will manage the hospital, told the crowd Monday that the hospital will employ 65 to 75 nurses and another 50 people in other roles. He added that many independent physicians will be on call.

Lo said the developers may have difficulties pulling local physicians away from their established practices.

"For primary physicians, it's still a business where you have to see a lot of patients to make a decent living," he said. "So some of them may think they're better off staying at a clinic where you can see as many patients as possible."

Nick Hughey, regional administrator of Kula Hospital and Lanai Community Hospital, both critical-access care hospitals in rural communities, shared the same concerns.

"It's just sort of the whole industry transitioning to an employed-physician model," he said. "It's an absolute operating reality."

Hoyle said there are many independent physicians on Maui who may want to work in a rural hospital. He told the audience that there are hundreds of practicing physicians on the island and even more that are retired.

"We don't have a hospital on the west side. That's why we don't have physicians here," he said. "What we're creating is a source of employment. If you have a place to practice your craft, this is a place you would be able to work at least on some level."

State and county lawmakers in attendance Monday included state Sen. Roz Baker, state Rep. Angus McKelvey and Council Members Gladys Baisa and Stacy Crivello.

Following the meeting, McKelvey said he was happy to see the project gain some "immediate traction" but shared similar concerns about physicians. McKelvey suggested offering incentives for physicians to practice at the hospital by providing housing options. The Kaanapali 2020 project, a mix of single-family and multifamily homes, located near the planned hospital, might be a possibility.

"Why don't they get some of this market-price housing to attract doctors" and other medical professionals? he asked.

The 53,000-square-foot hospital is planned for 15 acres on Kakaalaneo Road, makai of the Kaanapali Coffee Farms. The hospital will include 19 general acute beds, six critical-care beds, a 24-hour pharmacy and emergency department, three operating rooms, a diagnostic radiology department and outpatient services.

The project also calls for two 40,000-square-foot facilities for nursing and assisted-living patients, as well as two 30,000-square-foot buildings for medical offices and a clinic. Long-term plans call for a 40-bed, drug rehabilitation facility.

During Monday's meeting, Slaton explained to the crowd that the hospital's designation as a critical-access hospital means that it will receive reimbursement from Medicare and be allowed to have flexible staffing and services.

Slaton acknowledged that the new hospital cannot handle major cases, such as open heart surgery, and would need to transfer patients to a larger medical center, such as Maui Memorial, for such procedures.

Part of the benefit of the new hospital is quicker response time for trauma patients, who are currently transported to Maui Memorial on the other side of the island for treatment. Some residents questioned whether the additional time and treatment in West Maui would only delay the transfer to Maui Memorial in Central Maui. Slaton rejected the notion.

"Every day, patients are seen in these rural hospitals and stabilized and shipped to other hospitals," he said. "I have to reject the criticism to throw them in the back of the ambulance and pray." There are close to 1,500 critical-access hospitals in the nation that have saved thousands of lives by being able to treat victims in rural communities immediately, Slaton said.

"What you do have is the ability of board-certified physicians stabilizing patients," he said. "I think that's preferable as far as that's concerned."

The project is expected to cost $60 million, about $47 million for the hospital and about $13 million for the nursing and assisted-living buildings, Hoyle said. He said his company is providing the initial equity and purchasing the land but is still securing land entitlements that could take about a year.

The nonprofit West Maui Hospital Foundation will be the owners of the hospital, and the board members were introduced to the audience Monday. The members include Hoyle; county Transportation Director Jo Anne Johnson Winer; Howard Hanzawa, retired senior vice president for Kaanapali Land Management Corp.; and Dr. Alfred Arensdorf, a child and adolescent psychiatrist.

Although Lo offered his concerns about the new hospital, he remains confident in the abilities of the people behind the project.

"I think this gentleman they're bringing in is experienced, and I'm anxious to see their plans," he said of Slaton. "I wish them luck because we're all in the same boat."

* Chris Sugidono can be reached at csugidono@mauinews.com.

Newport Hospital Corporation Press Release

/

Newport Hospital Corporation is pleased to announce that a viable financing plan is underway for the development of the entire West Maui Hospital and Medical Center project, which consists of a 25 bed acute-care bed hospital, 40 bed assisted living facility, 40 bed skilled nursing facility, a state of the art medical office building, and a future drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility. This plan includes a sale/leaseback arrangement wherein the newly formed non-profit West Maui Hospital Foundation, Inc. will serve as the operator of the Hospital and Critical Access HealthCare, LLC will manage the Hospital. This plan, together with the recent formation of the West Maui Hospital Foundation, encapsulates the continued promise to the community to provide a "Center of Excellence" in acute healthcare with a 24-hour Emergency Room to West Maui.

The West Maui Hospital Foundation was incorporated in April of this year and arose out of the continued dedication to of a few highly respected community members to bring quality healthcare to West Maui. These community members represent the current Board of Directors of the West Maui Foundation: JoAnne Johnson-Winer, a former two term Maui County Council Member for West Maui who currently serves the role of Maui County Transportation Director; Howard Hanazawa, Civil Engineer, former Senior Vice President of Kaanapali Land Management, forty year resident of Maui, and current Maui County Police Commissioner; Dr. Alfred Arensdorf, Psychiatrist, former Maui Health District Officer, thirty-six year resident of Maui and previous executive assistant to Mayor Tavares; and Mr. Brian Hoyle, President of Newport Hospital Corporation. These individuals have shown a steadfast commitment to the community and will continue to work through the West Maui Hospital Foundation in raising $5 million in donations solely dedicated to funding of the West Maui Hospital's start-up and ongoing working capital needs.

Updates in the coming months will be available on the West Maui Hospital and Medical Center site at www.westmauihospitalandmedicalcenter.org. Further, once the West Maui Hospital Foundation obtains its official 501(c)(3) designation in the very near future, donations will be accepted on its website at www.westmauihospitalfoundation.org.

Financing in Place for Hospital in West Maui

/

By BRIAN PERRY - City Editor, The Maui News

Financing has been secured for the long-awaited West Maui Hospital and Medical Center, clearing the way for California-based developer Brian Hoyle to seek land entitlements and government permits for the project.

"We don't have the money in the bank," said Hoyle, Newport Hospital Corp. president, in a telephone interview late last week. But for a $45 million to $50 million project, it's not unusual for the loan to be funded shortly before construction begins, he said, adding that he has a commitment from an unidentified global real estate investment trust with access to "many billions" of dollars that finances projects worldwide.

The trust will be "financing all of our needs," Hoyle said.

The project's financing plan is a sale-leaseback arrangement, which Hoyle said is a "common financing" strategy in which the independent investor owns the real estate and then leases it to the operator of the facility.

In the West Maui hospital's case, its operator would be the West Maui Hospital Foundation, formed in April, and the manager of the acute-care hospital would be Critical Access HealthCare LLC.

"This plan, together with the recent formation of the West Maui Hospital Foundation, encapsulates the continued promise to the community to provide a 'center of excellence' in acute health care with a 24-hour emergency room to West Maui," an announcement from Newport Hospital Corp. said.

No new hospitals have been built on Maui since the Central Maui Memorial Hospital was built in 1952 in Wailuku, Hoyle said. Its name changed to Maui Memorial Hospital in 1963 and to Maui Memorial Medical Center in 1998.

The last hospital built in the state was the North Hawaii Community Hospital in 1995 at Kamuela on the Big Island, he said.

In March 2009, Newport Hospital Corp. received a certificate of need from the State Health Planning and Development Agency for the establishment of a West Maui facility with 19 medical/surgical beds, six critical care beds, 40 skilled nursing beds, an emergency room, operating room, a diagnostic radiology department and other, including outpatient, services.

The capital costs were projected to be nearly $45.8 million.

Facility plans also include a 30,000-square-foot medical office building, Hoyle said.

After exploring a number of locations, the hospital developer plans to locate the facility on 14.99 acres in Kaanapali off of Kakaalaneo Drive, mauka of Honoapiilani Highway. Hoyle said that the property is zoned agricultural and will need to be rezoned for public use.

If all goes according to plans, construction work could begin in early 2015, with the hospital completed in 15 to 18 months, or mid to late 2016, he said.

* Brian Perry can be reached at bperry@mauinews.com.