Big Island hospital
gets $50,000 for
imaging center

The grant helps the hospital's
$6.5 million fund-raising drive

Star-Bulletin staff

The North Hawaii Community Hospital on the Big Island will receive $50,000 over three years from the Bank of Hawaii Charitable Foundation for a world-class imaging center.

The bank recently presented the first of three donations to the Waimea medical center.

The grant supports a $6.5 million fund-raising drive by the hospital for a 2,400-square-foot imaging facility with state-of-the art medical equipment.

Scheduled for completion in June, the facility will include an advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device, CT scanner, multipurpose suite with angiography services and stereotactic breast biopsy equipment.

The bank previously gave the hospital a two-year $50,000 grant for construction.

"The new MRI is to diagnostic imaging what Keck is to telescopes," said Doug Hiller, orthopedic surgeon and chief of surgery at the hospital. "It is breakthrough technology, and it allows us to see things we never thought possible."

The new MRI is more accurate, performs more cellular analysis functions and has a wider range of uses than any other imaging device in Hawaii, the hospital said. With the new CT, a complete scan can be completed quickly and digitally transferred to any hospital or medical center in the country, it said.

Alton Kuioka, Bank of Hawaii vice chair, said the bank is pleased to help the hospital become one of the nation's leading imaging and healthcare centers.

John McNeil, the hospital's chief executive officer, said the bank's support represents "continued investment in the health of our island."

The 50-bed medical center is community-owned and managed by Adventist Health of Roseville, Calif. It opened in May 1996 and serves more than 30,000 residents and visitors of the North Hawaii, Hamakua and Kohala coasts.

For more information about the hospital or to donate to its "Campaign for the New Century," contact Jonathan Guilbert, 808-881-4425.