Hawaii’s public hospital system – Hawaii Health Systems Corporation — has been prominent in the news and in political forums during the past few weeks. Concerns about anticipated budget deficits and growing expenses in a changing health care environment are important topics for discussion among all stakeholders — our communities, our patients, our employees, medical staffs and clinicians, our public unions and our legislators
HHSC has a corporate board of directors that includes community members from the five regions — Oahu, Kauai, Maui, East Hawaii and West Hawaii — as well as the chief executive officers of those regions (ex-officio), the director of the Department of Health and one at-large appointee. The regional structure of governance was created in 2007 under Act 290 to give the regions who understand the needs of their vastly different island communities best the authority to manage their own operations and budgets under regional boards, while at the same time working together as a system for collective efficiencies and best practices.
As volunteers, board members at both the corporate and regional level give countless hours of their expertise and time to HHSC because they are passionate about the importance of having access to quality, affordable health care in our island communities that is available to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. Without this, people will leave Hawaii and individuals and businesses will not come here, which will affect our state and island economies and quality of life.
In our public hospital system, our employees are our greatest asset. We employ many highly trained professionals in their fields (doctors, nurses, etc.) and committed and talented staff to keep the hospitals running smoothly. Throughout HHSC’s history (dating back to 1996), we have been dependent on financial support from the state, as caring for our safety net population means we do not always get paid for services provided. Unfortunately, over time the budget deficit has grown considerably because of many factors — wage and benefit increases, reduced reimbursements, technology upgrade requirements (electronic medical records), capital needs for our aging facilities, increased costs for drugs and supplies and many other operational costs, such as insurance and utilities.
These increases have come at a time when our state struggles to meet the financial needs of many different departments and we understand the challenges our legislators and governor face in making these difficult decisions. That is why for many years we have been committed to improving operational efficiencies and pursuing other possible resources through public-private partnerships, collaborative service agreements and other types of cooperative relationships that provide additional resources.
On behalf of HHSC, we thank our volunteers, staff, leadership and community members for their support and we ask our state leaders to remain forward-thinking toward solutions that put our patients first and prioritize the health of our keiki and generations of Hawaii families above anything else.
We are committed to working together with all of our stakeholders toward a viable future. As uncertain as this future may be, we remain dedicated to making quality and accessibility our top priorities.
Carol A. VanCamp is chairwoman of the HHSC Corporate Board of Directors.
Viewpoint articles are the opinion of the writer and not necessarily the opinion of West Hawaii Today.