Queen’s ends
Community Health

As Queen's refocuses its
spending, Hawaiians lose a
key link to wellness efforts

Cuts to affect voyaging group

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

The Queen's Health Systems this month is closing its Queen Emma Community Health company, which supports native Hawaiian health programs.

Queen's officials attributed the closure to financial reasons and efforts to improve administration of community health projects.

Five employees, including manager Mele Look, are being laid off.

A Community Health contract to help fund several Polynesian Voyaging Society projects also was canceled.

Joel Kennedy, Queen's vice president for corporate communications, said there were legal concerns about a nonprofit health company financing an organization that appears to have little impact on health.

Support for other Community Health programs is on hold at current levels pending a study, he said.

The only major program being funded now is a Hawaiian two-year pilot of a New Zealand Maori program to help students do better in four Oahu schools, ending in June, Kennedy said.

Beyond funding for native Hawaiian health programs, the staff has been liaison with Hawaiian health organizations and resources to help organize seminars and conferences.

Mei-Ling Chang, executive director of Hui No Ola Pono in Wailuku, said Look has been a vital link to health services for rural communities and her departure will have "an incredible impact on services here."

Look, with Queen Emma Community Health seven years, declined to comment.

Kennedy said despite the decision to close Queen Emma Community Health,Queen's commitment to community health and native Hawaiian programs hasn't changed.

"It's not just a pure reduction of dollars. It's how effectively we use dollars," he said.

"It's an opportunity now to stop and look at how we handle them - how effective we're being, how the money is being spent, how internally we can do it better and make it work with other things we do," Kennedy said. "Anything with a solid health impact, we'll follow through on."

Queen Emma Community Health developed as a vision of Kenneth F. Brown, Queen's chairman from 1988 to 1998. Succeeding him was Robert Oshiro, also chairman and chief executive officer of the Queen Emma Foundation.

Oshiro says he's "totally committed to the Hawaiians."

He says the system must be restructured "to make sure we have sufficient resources to provide our basic mission: health care."

Since Queen's Health Systems incorporated in 1985, Oshiro pointed out it has grown from one hospital to 24 incorporated health care entities. "As a result, we lost control . . . It's nobody's fault. We just grew so fast."

Speaking at a Queen's leadership meeting in February, Oshiro traced the hospital's growth into the state's second-largest employer and hinted at changes to meet modern-day problems and help the system achieve a "destiny for greatness."

A committee of trustees and staff has been formed to recommend means of integrating the community health programs into the Queen's system, Oshiro said.

Drs. Emmett Aluli and Philip Reyes, Molokai General Hospital co-medical executive directors, and Calvin Ichinose, hospital administrator, were disappointed with Look's termination. (Molokai General is administered by Queen's).

In a memo to Queen's President Richard Griffith, the three said Look played a big role in several projects that contributed significantly to their hospital "and to the mission of Queen's towards the improvement of health for Hawaiians and the people of Hawaii."

They said they were involved with Look in at least seven projects last year, such as coordinating a Native Hawaiian Health and Wellness Summit and organizing an Association of Native Hawaiian Physicians.

Reyes and Aluli said in an interview they believe Queen's will continue to support a statewide initiative launched by Molokai General to look at disease in native Hawaiians.

"You start something, you finish it," Aluli said. "That's the Hawaiian way.

"Dissolving of this very important (Community Health) program that was centered in the health systems and the medical center is really a tragedy because we don't see an immediate replacement."

But he said, "I think this restructuring will enhance future programs of Molokai General in research and training that needs to be done in native Hawaiian communities, not just our hospital."

Reyes added, "We feel that way especially because we believe Mr. Oshiro's heart and hope is to support the Hawaiian people."

On Maui, Chang said Look helped to plan and organize a cardiac risk clinic in Hana scheduled in May for physicians, social workers and health workers.

"Now it's out," she said, because Look won't be available to hook up with physicians, labs and medical staff. "For us, Mele was a critical contact."

Chang said 90 Hawaiians screened two years ago were to be screened again and more people recruited. "We have to reassess what we can do, given the fact that we do not have that support from Queen's now."

---

Closure impacts Voyaging
Society funding

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

The Polynesian Voyaging Society will meet next week to discuss the loss of Queen Emma Community Health funding for a June voyage planned by the Hawaiian Hokule'a to Easter Island, or Rapa Nui.

The society received notice that its contract with Community Health is being canceled at the end of this month.

Several society projects were to be funded under the contract, including a celebration of 25 years of voyaging and health promotion after the Hokule'a's seven-month expedition, said society President Myron "Pinky" Thompson.

He said he had heard Queen's was having financial difficulties so he wasn't surprised that it was cutting back.

He said he met with Queen's Chairman Robert Oshiro on Wednesday "to get a clearer picture of what happened" and learned there were some legal questions about the contract with his organization.

Thompson couldn't say how much money is involved but he expects private fund-raising efforts will begin to cover the deficit. A number of organizations also are making in-kind contributions such as dry-dock services, he said.

While some may question the health aspects of the Voyaging Society's programs, Thompson said the Rapa Nui voyage has implications for Hawaii's future.

The population on the island - smaller than Niihau - fell from 13,000 to 111 because the people couldn't find a way to maintain their health and productivity, he said.

"The great part of this is they found a way to come back," he said, explaining the population now is up to 2,000. It's important to know how they recovered, he said. "If we misuse our resources, and we have been, we run the risk of another Rapa Nui experience . . .

"We at the Voyaging Society want to contribute to the well-being of Hawaii and the health of the people. Whatever happens, we would like to continue a relationship to Queen's . . .

"I see this not as closing down an operation but as revamping the effort. Our goal is the health of Hawaii."