Wilcox foundation closer to hospital-improvement goal By The Garden Island Concurrent donations of 20,000 each helped leaders of the Wilcox Health Foundation move closer to the $3-million fund-raising goal for Wilcox Memorial Hospital improvements. The funds came from Alexander &
Wilcox foundation closer to
hospital-improvement goal
By The Garden Island
Concurrent donations of 20,000 each helped leaders of the Wilcox Health Foundation move closer to the $3-million fund-raising goal for Wilcox Memorial Hospital improvements.
The funds came from Alexander & Baldwin Foundation and Kukui‘Ula Development Company, a Southshore development partnership between A&B and DMB Associates out of Arizona.
The check-passing ceremony at Kukui’s at the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort & Beach Club on Kalapaki Beach was something of a who’s who, involving several high-ranking officials with both A&B, the hospital and foundation, and DMB and Kukui‘Ula Development.
Invited were Dr. Richard Goodale, Wilcox Health Foundation (WHF) chair; Faye Akasaki, WHF vice chair and vice chair, “Picture the Future” capital campaign; Ron Kouchi, chair, “Picture the Future” capital campaign; Dr. Lee “Bill” Evslin, president and chief executive officer, Wilcox Health; Paul Douglass, chair, Wilcox Memorial Hospital board; Charlie King, WHF board member; Rebecca Allen, WHF director of development; Meredith Ching, vice president of A&B; Allen Doane, president and chief executive officer, A&B; Bob Sasaki, president of A&B Properties; Tom Shigemoto, vice president of A&B Properties on Kaua‘i; Trinette Kaui, property manager for A&B Properties on Kaua‘i; Tim Hoxie, president and general manager of Kauai Commercial Company; Dewayne Kong, Kaua‘i sales representative for Matson Navigation Company; Donn Soares, vice president of Kauai Coffee Company; Kris Kobayashi, community relations coordinator for A&B; Dick Holtzman, president of Kukui‘Ula Development Company; Sheila Holtzman; and Brenda Sameshima.
The donations moved the foundation’s capital campaign beyond the $2.2-million mark in a quest for $3 million in public and private donations toward the $12-million diagnostic center and surgical center, said Allen.
The donations are “significant in helping us achieve our goal,” she said.
The donations pushed the foundation to around 75 percent of the goal, she added.
Hospital and foundation leaders are planning for a new diagnostic and surgical center that will include new and upgraded equipment and enhanced services, expansion and better utilization of space, consolidation and expansion of diagnostic services and surgery, and provision of those services in a healing, patient- centered environment, she said.
The most recent donations will help in the purchase of a new CT (cat scan) and MRI unit, and a nuclear medicine camera.
The capital project will include renovation of the imaging and surgery departments and upgrading of much of the services currently provided at both Kauai Medical Clinic and Wilcox Memorial Hospital (collectively Wilcox Health); centralizing a variety of complementary services that are geographically dispersed to reduce overhead costs; increasing the efficiency of ophthalmology surgical services through the closure of the ambulatory surgery center at Kukui Grove Commercial Village; and consolidating many of those vital services to the primary campus.
