COM 0560.025 2002-2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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~ Mr. Chairman and Council members:~~~j o~.~,l ~ filrl 9 .i Thank you for the opportunity o tes ~ My name is Dr. Stephen Woo. We gave lived in Hilo for 29 years. I am a physician trained in the specialty of path~b~li'~md was irtvolv~l in the laboratory and performing autopsies. When I first started practicing pathology at the old Hilo Hospital in 1976, I was impressed by the enthusiasm and interest of a colleague who was one of our first emergency room specialist physicians. I had not seen anyone like him at Columbia in New York or at the Mayo Clinic where I worked or in the Army Medical Corp when 1 was a major during the Vietnam War. Often, after I had autopsied a case that passed through the tiny, inadequate ER, he'd call or stopped me in the hallway to learn of the findings. He was interested in learning from those cases to see what could be improved. Sometimes he's even ask for photos to show others so they could learn also. I can't count the number of times he say, "If only we had more time, if only we had gotten to the patient a little sooner. Things would have been so different!" Back then rescue was able to bring patients relatively quickly. The two major routes, Waianuenue and Komohana, weren't congested. In 1985 demands on the ER have grown so much that only Queen's in Oahu is busier. The hospital is embarking on a multimillion improvement program to enlarge it and make it more efScient. Ironically, vehicular access To the ER has not kept up, in fact it has regressed. and is getting more and more difficult. In 1975, Komohana was without intersections from Kawailani to Punahele. In the past two years two major interactions have been opened, first at Mohouli in 2002, and this year, Puainako. Fortunately both are large and roomy, allowing room for an emergency vehicle to negotiate stalled traffic.. Now another intersection is proposed for Ponahawai. This one is different. It would serve a large shopping center, as large as Kaikoo Mall, with anchor stores and very busy traffic during long weekends, holidays, etc. Traffic flow would be en•atic, with huge volumes at certain times of the day and during holidays and long weekends. At these times it could easily be congested with lines of cars blocks long on both Ponahawai and Komohana waiting to enter and exit. In fact we see such holdups right now in the morning on Komohana.. There is nothing so desperate as an EMS vehicle, siren wailing and barely moving as it tries to thread its way through that intersection on its trip from the hospital to the accident scene or its return with patients. The Ponahawai intersection would be the last tourniquet blocking a critically ill patient's route to vital care. ER physician colleague has retired from medicine, he will no longer have to lament, "If only we could have treated this patient sooner!" Thank you. ~~1 A. Stephen Woo, Jr. Comm. Na~`P~• Z~ Hilo, HI Ref. To: ?ressete/ '.f ~.%ote