Newsmaker
Monday, January 5, 1998
Name: Frederick C. Holschuh
Age: 57
Position: Hilo Medical Center physician.
Education: Columbia University Medical School.
Pastimes: Doing chores on his farm.
In 30 years of caring for Hawaii's people as a physician, Frederick C. Holschuh has been "seeing the mirror of the community's problems." Doc running for state Senate
"You get a sense of foreboding, of dread, if we don't start turning this around," said the Hilo Medical Center emergency doctor, citing problems of teen-age drug addiction, teen pregnancies, violence, abuse and depression.
Holschuh, the Hawaii Medical Association's "physician of the year for outstanding community service," now wants to help treat the state's social ills.
He is running for the state Senate seat for District 1 (North Hilo-Kohala) in the next election.
He said he's never done anything political other than involvement with the American Medical Association. "It has to do with 30 years of seeing the problems of society up close, day in, day out."
Holschuh came here from Long Island, N.Y., interned at The Queen's Medical Center, served two years in the U.S. Public Health Service's Indian Health Service in Arizona and returned to Honolulu as a pediatric resident at the former Children's Hospital.
He and two other physicians formed the Hawaii Emergency Physicians Associated Corp. in 1970. The group runs emergency room services at four Oahu and Big Island hospitals. He moved in 1974 to Honokaa, where he and his wife, Diane, raise cattle.
The Hawaii Medical Association said Holschuh "has always answered the appeal of nearly any community group needing assistance."
Holschuh was a major force in getting legislation this year to require hospital emergency departments to report blood-alcohol levels. He was disturbed that he was required to report child abuse, elder abuse and gunshot wounds to police - but not blood-alcohol concentrations of crash victims.
He asked the AMA House of Delegates two years ago to adopt a .02 blood-alcohol content for adult drivers, then altered his request to .04 to conform with federal requirements for commercial drivers.
The AMA recently adopted his proposal, he said. Now he's pushing for legislative action to lower Hawaii's .08 alcohol level to .04.
Holschuh was president of HMA in 1994-95. He has been president of the Hawaii County Medical Society and chief of staff of Hilo Medical Center.
Helen Altonn, Star-Bulletin
