LIHU’E — Before Wilcox Health System, Straub Clinic & Hospital and Kapi’olani Health can join forces as one of the largest healthcare delivery entities in the state, all three must first agree to the merger, said Dave Patton, Wilcox chief
LIHU’E — Before Wilcox Health System, Straub Clinic & Hospital and
Kapi’olani Health can join forces as one of the largest healthcare delivery
entities in the state, all three must first agree to the merger, said Dave
Patton, Wilcox chief executive officer.
Once all three agree — possibly by
week’s end, said Dave Patton, Wilcox chief executive officer – with the Wilcox
volunteer board that was expected to affirm its finance committee’s
recommendation and approve the merger today, the new entity, Hawai’i Pacific
Health, will still need state government approval to proceed.
An
application will be filed with the state Health Planning and Development
Agency, part of the state Department of Health. Drafting the application could
take four to six weeks, Patton said.
That process allows for public
hearings on Kaua’i and O’ahu and could take two to three months to complete
once the application is received by the state, Patton explained.
If the
application is approved by the state agency, then legal documents regarding the
merger will have to be drafted, exchanged, revised and, finally,
signed.
Patton figures it could be next July — ironically, one of the
slowest months of the year for hospitals — before Hawai’i Pacific Health is
officially launched.
The new company will own and manage all the assets of
the three merging entities with equal board representation among the three,
although all three are not bringing the same dollar value of assets to the
table.
“Wilcox will play a vital role in the management of the new
company,” Patton said.
Pat Oda, a Kaua’i native born at Wilcox Memorial
Hospital and now communications director at Kapi’olani Health, agrees.
“It’s very significant to have a Wilcox on Kaua’i,” and the merger will be
beneficial for all involved facilities, patients and communities, she
said.
“I think that the organizations believe that the future of a combined
partnership can bring greater strength and better healthcare to the community,
and to individual patients,” she said.
The three entities began talking
when Patton and Pam Dohrman, Wilcox Health System board chairwoman, went to
Honolulu to meet with Kapi’olani and Queen’s Medical Center officials to lament
the mounting financial losses, look at best practices that are working to ebb
that flow, and learn from each other, Patton said.
There, they learned
about a Queen’s plan to layoff workers and reduce the size of its corporate
office, and of Kapi’olani’s negotiations to merge with Straub and capitalize on
economies of scale to remain viable.
Patton shared details of the Wilcox
“reorganization” in February and March of this year, which eliminated 22
positions (some were vacant at the time).
“That’s helped us try to contain
this thing,” he said.
From that Honolulu meeting, negotiations were born to
throw Wilcox Health System into the merger mix, Patton said.
Staff
Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext.
224).
