HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-03-18 Letter to Donna Mercado Kim and Michelle N. Kidani SCR 82-SR 59 Teaching Hospital in West Hawaii
County of Hawai‘i
Office of the Mayor
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County of Hawai‘i is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer.
Wil Okabe
Managing Director
Harry Kim
Mayor
Barbara J. Kossow
Deputy Managing Director
March 18, 2019
Senator Donna Mercado Kim, Chair
Senator Michelle Kidani, Vice Chair
Committee on Higher Education
Dear Chair Kim, Vice Chair Kidani, and Committee Members:
RE: SCR 82/SR 59 Teaching Hospital in West Hawaiʻi
I strongly support SCR 82/SR 59.
The concept of establishing a teaching hospital in West Hawaiʻi is a masterstroke. It will serve as a
focus for recruiting, training and retaining the healthcare workers – physicians, nurses and others – that are so
sorely needed on Hawaiʻi Island. It will be core to the healthcare infrastructure enhancements needed to care
for our growing population, predicted by DBEDT to reach 300,000 by 2040.
A West Hawaiʻi teaching hospital will attract physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists,
phlebotomists, x-ray technicians, all the ancillary staff needed to run a hospital. It will become the anchor of a
robust, coordinated healthcare system, key to sustaining and retaining the healthcare workers currently lacking
on the Big Island.
It will enhance and diversify our economy, presently so dependent on tourism. It may have a positive
impact on tourism itself, assuring older or medically fragile tourists that West Hawaiʻi is a safe place to be, and
perhaps even bringing “medical tourists” seeking treatment.
Most of all, it will mean that clinical services and medical services presently absent on-island will be
available to our residents, allowing local families to receive care and support at home, often a big part of any
recovery.
Teaching hospitals are known to raise the standard of care in the communities they serve, providing
opportunity and employment, while better addressing everyday healthcare needs of residents and visitors
alike.
This Legislature approved a feasibility study once, but the funds lapsed. I sincerely hope that your
encouragement of JABSOM to look into the feasibility of a teaching hospital in West Hawaiʻi can move this
project forward.
Respectfully Submitted,
Harry Kim
MAYOR