Bill Text: HI HB2666 | 2018 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating To Capital Improvement Projects For The Benefit Of The Forty-sixth Representative District.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 14-2)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-01-29 - Referred to FIN, referral sheet 9 [HB2666 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2018-HB2666-Introduced.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
2666 |
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TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2018 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE FORTY-SIXTH REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that over the past ten years, Wahiawa General Hospital has experienced severe financial difficulties due to circumstances beyond its control. These circumstances have included:
(1) The reopening of Queen's Medical Center West Oahu in Ewa, Oahu;
(2) Reductions in medicare, medicaid, and private insurance reimbursements;
(3) The shortage of physicians in the State and in particular, central Oahu;
(4) New requirements under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and
(5) Increases in indigent care, which includes the homeless population.
When Hawaii Medical Center-West closed in 2012, Wahiawa General Hospital experienced nearly double the cases for acute inpatient care. Patients who would have gone to Hawaii Medical Center-West were diverted to Wahiawa General Hospital.
The Wahiawa General Hospital emergency room, which was originally designed to handle ten thousand cases per year, treated over twenty thousand cases as patients who would have gone to Hawaii Medical Center-West were transported to Wahiawa General Hospital. Ambulance visits increased by 20 per cent.
To meet this increase in demand, Wahiawa General Hospital hired more staff and made improvements to the emergency room. However, when Hawaii Medical Center-West was purchased by the Queen's Medical Center West Oahu, the number of emergency room cases sent to Wahiawa General Hospital decreased significantly, leading to a drop of approximately 20 per cent per month. By the end of the 2015 fiscal year, Wahiawa General Hospital experienced losses of more than $7,500,000 in revenues.
The legislature further finds that when a person goes to the hospital their costs are generally paid through medical insurance. For persons who are seniors, disabled, or poor, their health costs are covered by the federal medicare program, or by the State medicaid program. Both of these programs have limitations on the amounts that may be reimbursed for services rendered, as specified by law. From a practical standpoint, persons who are covered by medicare and medicaid are being served at a financial loss by the physician and hospital.
More than 85 per cent of the patients at Wahiawa General Hospital are covered under medicare or medicaid. Only 14 per cent of admissions are patients with private insurance. There are far too few of these patients who are available to offset the losses experienced from the medicare and medicaid patients. Accordingly, losses from medicare and medicaid have been absorbed by Wahiawa General Hospital.
The legislature further finds that Wahiawa General Hospital serves a community with a higher shortage of doctors than Hawaii Island, Molokai, and most of Maui. The shortage of private care physicians on Oahu has forced Wahiawa General Hospital to spend an additional $1,700,000 per year to acquire specialized inpatient hospitalists and on-call surgeons to treat patients. These physicians are needed at Wahiawa General Hospital because 95 per cent of inpatient admissions are through emergency services.
By law, Wahiawa General Hospital is required to treat patients for emergency care regardless of the patient's ability to pay. As the homeless population surrounding Wahiawa General Hospital has grown, the number of indigent care cases has also increased, and the number of homeless individuals in central Oahu and the North Shore only continues to grow. Without any reimbursement available for many of these cases, costs of care must be absorbed solely by Wahiawa General Hospital.
To address these circumstances, Wahiawa General Hospital has cut its programs, services, and personnel, while allowing basic repair and maintenance of the infrastructure to go unmet. Among other things, Wahiawa General Hospital reduced staff by approximately seventy-five full-time equivalent positions, eliminated the long-running family practice residency teaching program, and cut more than $9,000,000 from the annual budget.
The legislature acknowledges that Wahiawa General Hospital is the only facility that provided emergency medical services in a vast geographical area extending from Mililani to Wahiawa, Waialua, Haleiwa, and Sunset – an area encompassing nearly one-third of the island of Oahu.
If Wahiawa General Hospital were to close, the nearest emergency room for a person living in Wahiawa would be either Pali Momi near Pearlridge or Queen's Medical Center West Oahu – both of which are approximately fourteen miles away.
For persons living in Mokuleia or Sunset, the distance would be thirty miles, or double the distance it currently takes to go to Wahiawa General Hospital.
Furthermore, Wahiawa General Hospital is the largest private employer in central Oahu, providing more than five hundred well-paying jobs. More than 90 per cent of Wahiawa General Hospital's employees live in our communities with most of the full-time employees being members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, United Public Workers union, and Hawaii Nursing Association. The closure of Wahiawa General Hospital would be devastating to entire families. Heads of households would need to seek reemployment while keeping up payments for mortgages and utilities, putting food on the table, and doing all they can to make life normal for their children and families.
In addition, as employees and their families lose their sources of income, they are not able to purchase goods and services within the community. Thus, shop owners and service providers in the communities where these employees reside will see a decrease in sales, forcing them to possibly reduce hours or staff.
The impact of the possible closure of Wahiawa General Hospital would be catastrophic to the region and State. Accordingly, the legislature asserts that the public interest is served by assisting Wahiawa General Hospital during its financial crisis.
The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds for desperately needed infrastructure improvements at Wahiawa General Hospital to ensure that it continues to operate and ensure the health, welfare, and safety for the citizens of central Oahu, and the people of the State.
SECTION 2. The director of finance is authorized to issue general obligation bonds in the sum of $4,442,500 or so much thereof as may be necessary and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary is appropriated for fiscal year 2018-2019 for the purpose of financing capital improvement projects for the forty-sixth representative district, as follows:
A. Wahiawa General Hospital, Oahu
Plans, design, construction, and equipment for a new fire alarm system.
Plans $1,000
Design $1,000
Construction $1,000
Equipment $204,000
Total funding $207,000
B. Wahiawa General Hospital, Oahu
Plans, design, construction, and equipment for a new sprinkler riser and alarm system.
Plans $1,000
Design $1,000
Construction $1,000
Equipment $14,000
Total funding $17,000
C. Wahiawa General Hospital, Oahu
Plans, design, construction, and equipment for a new chiller plant and additional package unit system.
Plans $1,000
Design $1,000
Construction $1,000
Equipment $1,397,000
Total funding $1,400,000
D. Wahiawa General Hospital, Oahu
Plans, design, construction, and equipment for new air handling units on the roof.
Plans $1,000
Design $1,000
Construction $1,000
Equipment $497,000
Total funding $500,000
E. Wahiawa General Hospital, Oahu
Plans, design, construction, and equipment for a new ceiling air handling unit in the men's room across from the cafeteria.
Plans $1,000
Design $1,000
Construction $1,000
Equipment $97,000
Total funding $100,000
F. Wahiawa General Hospital, Oahu
Plans, design, construction, and equipment for a new ceiling air handling unit in the medical records area.
Plans $1,000
Design $1,000
Construction $1,000
Equipment $97,000
Total funding $100,000
G. Wahiawa General Hospital, Oahu
Plans, design, construction, and equipment for new ceiling air handling unit in the laboratory.
Plans $1,000
Design $1,000
Construction $1,000
Equipment $97,000
Total funding $100,000
H. Wahiawa General Hospital, Oahu
Plans, design, construction, and equipment for a new nurse call system.
Plans $1,000
Design $1,000
Construction $1,000
Equipment $197,000
Total funding $200,000
I. Wahiawa General Hospital, Oahu
Plans, design, construction, and equipment to replace forty acute care unit beds.
Plans $1,000
Design $1,000
Construction $1,000
Equipment $262,000
Total funding $265,000
J. Wahiawa General Hospital, Oahu
Plans, design, construction, and equipment to replace five intensive care unit beds.
Plans $1,000
Design $1,000
Construction $1,000
Equipment $97,000
Total funding $100,000
K. Wahiawa General Hospital, Oahu
Equipment for mattress replacements.
Equipment $53,500
Total funding $53,500
L. Wahiawa General Hospital, Oahu
Plans, design, construction, and equipment to renovate and upgrade the senior behavioral health unit, which is critically needed and temporarily closed.
Plans $1,000
Design $1,000
Construction $1,000
Equipment $1,497,000
Total funding $1,500,000
SECTION 3. The sums appropriated for the respective capital projects set forth in section 2 shall be expended by the designated expending agency for the purposes of this Act.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2018.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
CIP; 46th Representative District; Wahiawa General Hospital
Description:
Appropriates funds for capital improvement projects at Wahiawa General Hospital for the benefit of the 46th Representative District.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
