Alii Health Center is expanding again, this time to another 4,000 square feet of office space that will accommodate its three new OB/GYNs.
The new office, which will be located just a few doors down from the current location in the Keauhou Shopping Center, will allow the center to offer “full service” obstetric and gynecological treatments “in a space designed for women,” Executive Director Debra Sundberg said Thursday.
Kona doesn’t have a single such center dedicated just to women, she added.
One of the new doctors will be able to take on some high-risk prenatal cases, allowing those women to see a doctor here instead of Oahu for a majority of the pregnancy. Sundberg said Alii Health’s doctors will then hand off those patients to a Kapiolani Women and Children hospital physician at the end of the pregnancy.
One goal is to “keep women here longer and not fly to Oahu (for monthly appointments), keep them home in and in their community,” she said. “That is something has really been missed here and something we’re so proud of.”
Sundberg was also excited about the partnership that came together to fund bringing a third doctor here and fund the office expansion, which wasn’t something Alii Health officials had planned to do quite this soon. Included in the partnership are care providers Kona Community Hospital, West Hawaii Community Health Center and insurance providers, including Hawaii Medical Service Association, better known as HMSA, United Health Care, AlohaCare, Wellcare and Ohana Health Plan.
Expanded services Alii Health will offer include the ability to place intrauterine devices, a form of birth control generally referred to as IUDs and some urogynecology services. Right now, Alii Health patients who want an IUD must undergo an outpatient procedure at Kona Community Hospital. Doing the procedure at their office will be less expensive for the patient, Sundberg said.
Dr. Danielle Potter joined Alii Health in August, as the first of the trio of new doctors there. Born and raised on the Big Island, she graduated from Kamehameha Schools on Oahu, completed medical school at Creighton University in Nebraska and did additional training in Phoenix. Potter said she was looking for an opportunity to return to Hawaii when she learned of the Alii Health opening.
One of the values she learned at Kamehameha Schools was the importance of helping local families, she said.
“There’s a definite need we’re hoping to fill,” she said.
Dr. Gary Bernard, a native of Michigan, said he grew up with a “West Coast personality,” favoring flip flops, shorts and floral print-shirts. He attended medical school in Texas, did post-graduate training back in Michigan and eventually began working his way west.
“I love it here, Hawaii in general and Alii Health in particular,” said Bernard, who started the job in January. “From within, Alii Health seems to be a family.”
From the outside, it is an organization that is interested in taking care of the community, he added. Community service has always been a focus for him, he added.
Dr. Harnath Holmes said he ended up in Hawaii last month thanks to a bit of “dumb luck.”
“With a medical degree, you can work anywhere, but you have to find a spot,” Holmes said. “I just sort of fell into place.”
Originally from Minnesota, Holmes completed his undergraduate work in Wisconsin and studied medicine in Minnesota.