With the June 27 lava flow accelerating toward Pahoa, area health care providers say they are busy preparing for the possibility that highway access to lower Puna will be cut off.
Bay Clinic Inc., which operates two facilities on Pahoa Village Road, including the Pahoa Family Health Center and the Pahoa Women and Children’s Health Center, “plans to stay,” according to Bay Clinic CEO Harold Wallace.
Should an evacuation be ordered for areas including Bay Clinic’s facilities within Pahoa, a mobile dental health unit will be converted into a medical unit so that the clinic can continue to offer services south of the lava flow for people in the already medically underserved region of lower Puna.
“It will be a scaled-back presence, but it will be a presence,” Wallace said.
“We’ll be able to handle everything (the clinics currently offer) with the exception of minor surgical things like wound care.”
Where that mobile unit will be located remains to be seen, added Youlsau Bells, Bay Clinic’s director of development.
“We’ve been talking with Leilani Estates Community Center and also Nanawale to see if we can park the van in those areas for longer periods of time. They have agreed, but really, where we would end up would depend on the lava flow, the impact on the community, and where we feel we’re most needed,” she said.
Clients north of the flow will be able to visit Bay Clinic’s Keaau site, where additional exam rooms can be added to help with the increased need, Wallace said.
Between 35 and 40 employees currently operate the clinics in Pahoa, with about five being required to work the mobile unit. The remaining employees would likely be relocated to the site in Keaau or elsewhere.
“There will, of course, be inconvenience and longer drives for those individuals. We may move things around, have some come in later, or work a couple days a week. We’ll have to be very creative, as there is a lot of uncertainty. But we don’t plan to lay off staff,” Wallace said.
Meanwhile, the staff at the Puna Community Medical Center is working to continue their services.
In a phone interview Friday, Clinical Programs Director Dan Domizio said much still remained in the air as to how his facility would continue to provide service.
“This morning, it has truly been wild. I’ve been getting phone call after phone call,” he said.
Recently, the clinic received a donation of a $350,000 mobile medical unit, but how and when it can be used is still being worked out.
“We’re accepting the gift, provided all legal and insurance and things are worked out. But that again has yet to be done,” he said.
Temporary offices are currently being set up at the Neighborhood Place of Puna, he said.
“Generally speaking, we are going to move all the big stuff, exam tables and whatnot, and get all the computers set up at that building and then basically stop and wait. Before we get all into the detail work, we just want to make sure we’ve got all the things that would be difficult to move moved before (Highway) 130 is cut off,” Domizio said. “We’re in the process of getting equipment and supplies from Hilo Medical Center. … Probably by Monday we will have made the move into that slot. That doesn’t mean we’ll have services yet.”
It could be another couple of weeks before the site is up and running, he said.
Additionally, the medical center is seeking donations of tables, chairs and other furniture items. The clinic can be reached at 930-6001.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.