Health care group takes cause to state Capitol

By CLAUDINE SAN NICOLAS, Staff Writer

LAHAINA– Members of a Maui health care advocacy group are lobbying this year for legislation to abolish the certificate-of-need process and call for the replacement of the island’s only hospital.

To kick off its efforts, the Association for Improved Healthcare on Maui plans to rally at the state Capitol on Jan. 16, the first day of the 2008 legislative session.

The association’s founder and public relations consultant, Jan Shields, has sent out more than 3,000 e-mails in her membership roll, calling for residents to travel to Oahu and push state lawmakers to make health care their top issue.

“We need for the Legislature to know how we feel,” Shields said. “They know you must be passionate about this if you show up.”

She said she doesn’t know how many association members will travel to the Legislature, but at least 20 blue T-shirts with the group’s logo have been ordered to use for the rally on Oahu.

“Health care is the number one issue. If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything else,” Shields said.

The association officially formed at the end of the 2007 legislative session after Shields and other supporters were unsuccessful in eliminating the certificate-of-need process that was seen as a roadblock to the proposed Malulani Health and Medical Center, which failed to get state approval for a permit to proceed.

Since the beginning of the association’s formation, Shields has been making public appearances and raising funds, which have amounted to approximately $65,000 in six months.

Malulani supporters also tried to get a different bill that would have exempted the new hospital from the entire certificate-of-need review, but that attempt failed too.

Shields maintains that the certificate-of-need process administered by the State Health Planning and Development Agency is inhibiting Maui from establishing much-needed health care services.

“We have a huge lack of services,” she said, citing as examples Maui’s need for advanced cardiac care and a neonatal and a pediatric intensive care unit.

The association’s mission continues to be “to serve as an advocate for the creation of a system that will provide excellent health care services to all of the citizens and visitors of Maui County.”

In that effort, the association is writing a draft proposal that calls for abolishing the certificate-of-need process, except for specialty hospitals. Shields said facilities that only offer specialties or money-making services should be scrutinized by the certificate-of-need process, because they could negatively affect other health care facilities.

Coincidentally, the Maui Health Care Initiative Task Force, which formed following the controversy over the certificate-of-need process, plans to recommend legislation that would impose more home rule in the state’s review of proposed medical facilities and services, but it would not eliminate the current process.

In addition to lobbying against the current state review process, the association will continue to push for a full-service, 350-bed hospital in Kihei and another hospital for West Maui, Shields said.

Maui physician Dr. Ron Kwon, the founder and president of Malulani, announced in December his plans to leave Maui and discontinue his hospital proposal.

Shields called Kwon’s pending departure “a huge loss to Maui.” She said her association wants to keep fighting for the kind of state-of-the-art facility Kwon had hoped to build here.

Regarding the state-operated Maui Memorial Medical Center, Shields said her group would like to see a reduced role for what is now the island’s only acute-care facility. Shields envisions the current hospital, for example, housing a psychiatric unit, a gymnasium for patients in need of physical rehabilitation and a drug recovery center.

“It’s very radical. It’s very doable,” Shields said.

She said the association supports all the state employees at Maui Memorial and wants them all to keep their jobs. The group’s hope is to have the employees either retrained for the renovated facility or transferred to the new hospitals they hope to see built.

“It will be hard,” Shields said. “Change is huge and it is hard.”

Shields said the association believes that privately operated hospitals could offer increased pay for medical workers, improved facilities for physicians and other medical professionals, and better health care services for all.

“I’m very, very down on any government-run hospital,” Shields said. “I’m not at all down on the doctors, the nurses, the employees and the people who are trying to do their jobs at Maui Memorial.”

The Association for Improved Healthcare on Maui will hold its first board meeting this Saturday to discuss more of the group’s plans and strategies. The meeting is not open to the public, but Shields said all other future gatherings will welcome public input.

For more information on the association and its upcoming legislative rally, call Shields at 298-8886, or visit the Web site at aihm-maui.org. E-mail may be sent to information@AIHM-Maui.org.

Claudine San Nicolas can be reached at claudine@mauinews.com.