Editor’s note: This is the first of two stories about an exodus from Kaua‘i of health-care professionals. A doctor not being able to afford a home on Kaua‘i gives new meaning to the age-old question, “Is there a doctor in
Editor’s note: This is the first of two stories about an exodus from Kaua‘i of health-care professionals.
A doctor not being able to afford a home on Kaua‘i gives new meaning to the age-old question, “Is there a doctor in the house?”
Dr. Ira Murphy, an obstetrician-gynecologist (obgyn) at Wilcox Health (Wilcox Memorial Hospital and Kauai Medical Clinic) likes her patients, and her patients like her.
Since starting work last July, she has enjoyed her work on Kaua‘i, and said she’s been treated well.
She gets on well with her staff. On Mother’s Day, she delivered four babies.
So why is Murphy leaving Kaua‘i next month and heading to Corpus Christi, Texas?
“I can’t afford to buy a house here. I need to be about five minutes from the hospital. I need a four-bedroom home, and its fiscally impossible,” she said.
“I did not expect the housing market to be so high,” she said. “If you cannot afford a home, what are you going to do?”
Murphy is married, and has two young children. In addition, her mother lives with her.
Murphy is on a one-year contract that expires June 30. She said she will fulfill her obligation.
“If I have to work for seven years to pay off a mortgage, what will be left for my children?” she wondered.
Murphy, who has been practicing medicine since 1998, said unlike other states identified by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) as so-called “red-alert” states with a medical-liability-insurance crisis threatening obgyns, the high cost of malpractice insurance in Hawai‘i was not a major factor in her decision, though she conceded it took a bite out of her take-home pay.
“The pay is not as much as it could be, but I think that is part of the high cost of living,” she said.
Murphy said she will be receiving about a 25-percent wage increase in Corpus Christi, where the cost of housing and living will undoubtedly be lower than what she is experiencing on Kaua‘i.
Also, Texas has no state in-come tax, although it is one of the “red-alert” states identified by ACOG.
According to ACOG officials, the number of obstetricians has dropped 9 percent over the last two years. The reason is malpractice costs and the fear of lawsuits, according to ACOG officials.
Josh Ellington of the Corpus Christi Board of Realtors said the average sales price of a single-family home in that city for March, 2005, was $144,000.
The median price for a single-family home during that same month was $128,000, about a quarter of the median house price on Kaua‘i.
Su Haynes, one of Murphy’s patients, said Murphy is a very well-liked and well-respected physician who in her short stay on Kaua‘i had made a lot of friends.
Haynes said it was “nuts” that a person and physician of Murphy’s caliber had to leave because of housing costs.
“As an Indian woman, I think she overcame some prejudice at first. She will be so missed.”
Haynes has a very compelling reason to both praise Murphy, and to mourn her decision to leave.
“She saved my life,” Haynes said.
Haynes was undergoing a gynecological check-up Friday with Murphy, when Haynes started to hemorrhage. Murphy acted fast, and performed an emergency radical hysterectomy on Haynes.
“It was amazing. She put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” joked Haynes, who said Murphy was even willing to make a house call. Murphy said she will miss her patients very much. She said if non-job-related issues had worked out, she would have stayed on.
“It’s very busy. I think the community really does need good female obstetricians,” she said.
According to ACOG, the medical-liability issue has reached the point where physicians are opting not to deliver children for fear of lawsuits.
- Andy Gross, business editor, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or agross@pulitzer.net.
