The governing boards of Kapi’olani Health and Straub Clinic & Hospital, Inc. have unanimously approved moving forward with discussions aimed at merging the two O’ahu-based healthcare organizations with Kauai’s Wilcox Health System. The Wilcox board in December also unanimously approved
The governing boards of Kapi’olani Health and Straub Clinic & Hospital, Inc. have unanimously approved moving forward with discussions aimed at merging the two O’ahu-based healthcare organizations with Kauai’s Wilcox Health System.
The Wilcox board in December also unanimously approved more merger talks.
The next steps, according to Dr. David Patton, chief executive officer of Wilcox, include the filing of a Certificate of Need application with the state Health Planning and Development Agency, perhaps by the end of February. This will allow for public hearings on Kaua’i and O’ahu on the proposed merger.
“Now that all three boards have unanimously endorsed the merger, there is still a lot more careful work that needs to be completed,” Patton said.
Procedures in which all three entities study the operations of the others to make sure the merger is in their best interests includes the state application process, he said.
Preparation of new corporate documents, filing of anti-trust paperwork with the federal government, and notification to the state attorney general’s office are also part of the legal, due-diligence phase that “could easily take as long as six months, resulting in the potential for a completed merger by mid to late summer,” Patton continued.
The new company would be called Hawai’i Pacific Health and would own the assets of the hospitals and physician medical groups now owned separately by Kapi’olani, Straub and Wilcox.
“However, the medical centers and physician groups will continue to maintain their own corporate structures, each with their own boards of directors,” Patton said.
“A great deal of analysis, planning and study preceded the voting by our respective governing boards. However, there are still many questions to be answered, and much work to be accomplished,” he said.
He pledged Wilcox employees and physicians would be kept “fully informed of the facts regarding this merger.”
Wilcox nurses have raised concerns about possible effects of the merger.
If merged, the three organizations would be the largest hospital system in Hawai’i. Wilcox Memorial Hospital in Lihu’e, Kapiolani Health’s Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu and Kapiolani Medical Center at Pali Momi in Aiea, and Straub’s main hospital in Honolulu have a combined 750 patient beds. By comparison, the state’s largest single hospital, The Queen’s Medical Center, has 550 beds.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
