Unable to get enough trained operating-room nurses, Wilcox Health System has temporarily closed its Kukui Grove Ambulatory Surgery Center. The center in Kukui Grove Professional Village has two procedure rooms, offering an alternative to Wilcox Memorial Hospital or Wilcox’s main
Unable to get enough trained operating-room nurses, Wilcox Health System has
temporarily closed its Kukui Grove Ambulatory Surgery Center.
The center in
Kukui Grove Professional Village has two procedure rooms, offering an
alternative to Wilcox Memorial Hospital or Wilcox’s main clinic for certain
surgeries. It will reopen as soon as qualified nurses have been recruited to
the island, said Cathy Adams, a registered nurse and vice president of hospital
operations with Wilcox Health System.
The Eye Care Center, Optical Shop,
podiatry clinic, physical therapy and dermatology operations in the same
building remain open for business, she said.
The building was closed
earlier this year by a fire, and now the surgery center is temporarily closed
by a nationwide problem which found its way to the island — a shortage of
qualified specialty nurses and other trained medical personnel.
“So, we had
to make a tough call” and close the center, said Dr. Dave Patton, chief
executive officer of Wilcox Health System, which includes Wilcox
Memorial.
The center needs three nurses.
Patton said he understands the
inconvenience that the closure is causing, but added there is no other choice
without adequate staffing.
The surgeries and other procedures which had
been offered are available at the hospital, Patton said.
The hospital has
three operating-room suites as well as an endoscopy suite, where procedures
using fiber-optic technologies to check for cancer inside the body are
conducted, Adams said.
The nationwide nursing shortage is most acute in
specialty areas like operating rooms,and other critical medical-care arenas
where only experienced help will do, Adams said. Wilcox is experiencing no
shortage of qualified nurses in either the emergency room or intensive care
unit, she added.
Wilcox is advertising for qualified nurses in The Garden
Island, Honolulu and mainland newspapers, and on the Internet, Adams said. But
the competition is stiff.
“Everybody’s looking for OR (operating room)
nurses,” said Adams.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at
pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
