‘Save KVMH’

WAIMEA — Can you imagine a Kauai with just one hospital, said Eileen Naka‘ahiki Friday afternoon in Waimea.

The possibility looms, she said, as more than 50 citizens, including employees of Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital, took to the streets for picketing along Hofgaard Park to bring awareness to the Legislature about funding cuts resulting in the hospital’s downsizing.

“What if there was just one hospital?” said Naka‘ahiki, a 24-year KVMH employee. “Four days ago, my sister-in-law needed to be admitted, and we called Wilcox Hospital. No room. We called Queen’s Medical Center. No room. We called Straub Hospital. No room. Four days later, she needed to be medivaced to Oahu as an emergency medical, forcing Straub to find a room where she could be admitted.”

Naka‘ahiki said there might be three hospitals on Kauai, but they each have different specialties.

“At KVMH, our mission is to treat and stabilize,” she said. “Once stable, we send patients off to the bigger hospitals like Wilcox Hospital, Queen’s, or Straub.”

Friday’s picketing started out with about three dozen people and quickly swelled to almost twice the amount as people got off work. Jose Bulatao, a Kekaha resident, said it was a grassroots effort to rally people to contact their lawmakers and request that full funding be restored to both KVMH and the Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital.

“In recent months, there was a reduction in funding and the resulting staff cuts,” Bulatao said. “It’s hard to reach the public at large, but the basic reaction to the funding cuts and staff reduction is a lot of apprehension. Whatever it takes — we must save KVMH, the one hospital that covers the area from Kalaheo to the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Mana.”

Nani Fukino, whose husband Dr. Wayne Fukino works at KVMH, said Hawaii Health Systems Corp. did not get the funding it needed for the 2015 biennium budget.

“The biennium budget means the state won’t look at the budget until 2017,” Fukino said. “We did not get what we needed from the Legislature in 2015, and we won’t be getting anything in 2016. I’m afraid that if there is no funding (in the 2017 budget), it’s going to be hard to keep the doors open. You know, if you don’t pay the utility bills, they shut you off.”

Rep. Dee Morikawa said she was made aware of this situation by Dr. Fukino.

“I don’t sit on the finance committee, but I did hear that if HHSC got the funding they requested in the budget, they might still need to cut the number of beds, but not services,” she said. “The Maui hospital issue has not been settled, and we don’t know the financial impact that will have with paying off employees. I have been told that KVMH will be OK if they get the same allotment as last year since they have already done the reduction in force. There may still need to be a few adjustments.”

Morikawa said the Legislature is far from a final budget.

Fukino said she heard Gov. David Ige is signing for a $22 million infusion for HHSC.

“We’re doing this rallying to show the governor that everything is not alright in regards to KVMH and Mahelona Hospital,” Fukino said. “If there is no infusion of funds, the hospitals are going to eventually have to stop services.”

William “Bill” Wilcox and Stacie Aguinaldo are emergency room nurses at KVMH, and said things have been hard since the funding cuts and RIF.

“We tried to reduce staff,” Aguinaldo said. “That led to chaos. Right now, we’re running on a skeleton crew which results in poor patient care. We are a 5-star hospital based on patient response surveys.”

Wilcox said he’s never seen conditions as bad as it is.

“I’ve been there for eight years,” Wilcox said. “They have a hard time finding funds to pay vendors for supplies and services. This is about safety.”

Bailey Taeza, a Waimea High School student, and her brother Keoua Taeza were among the picketers.

“We need KVMH because it is the only hospital on the Westside to care for our families,” Bailey said. “We need to keep it open. It’s up to us to come together and save it.”