partnership<\/a> between the state, Queen\u2019s Health and Hawai\u2018i Health Systems Corporation for a 50,000-square-foot facility to stand adjacent to the future hospital to provide additional expert care to hospital patients.<\/p>\n\u201c[Kona Rep.] Nicole Lowen and I have been talking about this for years,\u201d Green said at a news conference Wednesday. \u201cA hospital that meets the needs of that part of Kona makes it so much better for our k\u016bpuna who will constantly have some needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jason Chang, president and CEO of Queen\u2019s Health, said Wednesday that he hopes both the new hospital and outpatient facility can be completed and serving patients within five years.<\/p>\n
The outpatient facility, Chang said, will be a \u201cone-stop hub\u201d for specialist care that previously would have required patients to travel to other facilities on the island \u2014 such as Queen\u2019s North Hawai\u2018i Community Hospital in Waimea \u2014 or be airlifted to O\u2018ahu.<\/p>\n
Green said the state will commit $50 million in state bonds to fund the outpatient facility, while additional funding may be available through a federal Rural Health Transformation Program, which will award Hawai\u2018i $200 million a year for the next five years.<\/p>\n
While the state legislature will need to approve the funds during the 2026 legislative session, HHSC is expected to make additional funding requests as the project progresses.<\/p>\n
Clayton McGhan, HHSC\u2019s West Hawai\u2018i Region CEO, said that, although construction of the new facility is still a ways away, residents are already benefiting from the partnership. Surgeons from Queen\u2019s Health are already practicing at Kona Community Hospital, giving patients better access to services they may have needed to travel to receive.<\/p>\n
McGhan and Chang both said the new West Hawai\u2018i health care infrastructure will help the island retain doctors, something that has been a challenge for the state in general and the region in particular. Green said West Hawai\u2018i’s population growth has outstripped development for medical services, leaving doctors to pursue careers elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Chang said the new outpatient facility is expected to generate an additional 350-450 jobs.<\/p>\n
Green acknowledged that the current state of health care in the country \u2014 particularly the impending cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act which will take effect in 2027 \u2014 could threaten access to medical services for more than 8,000 state residents. Because of this, he said, state investment in medical infrastructure is more imperative than ever.<\/p>\n
Green added that next year\u2019s state budget will include a $16.5 million tax credit for ACA beneficiaries whose coverage may be threatened.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Chang assured that \u201ccare will not be sacrificed\u201d even amid uncertain health care impacts, and said the planned hospital will reduce wait and travel times for patients in need.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve committed to building ICUs, building an advanced emergency department, putting in advanced diagnostics, a CAT lab,\u201d Chang said. \u201cWe have a helipad, because patients that need to be transferred to the trauma center will be able to do that in the fastest possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the latest news of Hawai\u2018i,\u00a0sign up here<\/a> for our free Daily Edition newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state is partnering with Queen\u2019s Health Systems to develop a new outpatient medical facility alongside a planned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[15745,267,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-60358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-hawaii","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-queens","14":"tag-queens-headlines","15":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}