Honolulu’s Hidden Jewel (Kapiolani Med. Center for Women & Children)
April 28th, 2008 categories: Fun & Living, Rants & Riffs
At the beginning of April, I joined the board of the Kapiolani Health Foundation. This is the fundraising arm of the Kapiolani Medical Center. The purpose of this blog is to inform, as well as ask you to make a donation to help sustain this valuable community asset (click here to make an online gift). Many of us take it for granted that Honolulu has a women’s and children’s hospital. However, to put this in perspective, every other women’s and children’s hospital in the United States serves a population of between 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 people. Hawaii has a population of approximately 1,100,000. Why is this important?
Without Kapiolani’s expertise many patients would be facing trips off island to receive high quality care. In emergencies, it takes a minimum of 24 hours to arrange an air ambulance (with an accompanying Dr. and/or nurse too) and, realistically, a patient can wait 36 to 48 hours before being transported to the mainland. These many hours can mean the difference between life and death. If the wait for the flight doesn’t kill the patient, then the cost may cause financial trauma to the family, as this type of flight can cost more than $60,000. On top of this, a child would be facing treatment in the mainland, far, far away from family comforts.
Due to Kapiolani’s specialization in women and children, it is the hospital of last resort for babies born at Honolulu’s other hospitals. In other words, when there are childbirth issues that other local hospitals cannot handle, they are transported to Kapiolani. When a mother or child needs extraordinary care anywhere in the pacific islands (Guam, Samoa, Christmas Island, Micronesia, etc.) Kapiolani is the hospital everyone attempts to get to for that care.
Here are Kapiolani’s annual numbers
- 6,000+ babies are born at Kapiolani.
- Of this 6,000+, 15% are treated in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Intermediate Nursery for critical care.
- Over 300 children are treated at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
- Over 27,000 adults and children are seen in Emergency Room.
- 62,000 inpatient and outpatient children plus an additional 79,000+ adult patients.
- 653 children are treated in the Pediatric Ambulatory Unit (PAU) for Blood and Cancer treatment.
- 464 life saving air transport is provided for seriously ill newborns and children to/from neighbor islands and the mainland.
- Kapiolani spends $2.2 million each year on uncompensated care.
- 29% of all Medicaid/Quest patients in Hawaii are seen at Kapiolani.
- 5% of all patients arrive with no insurance at all.
The numbers are important, but, to me, when a child or baby can be saved, when they otherwise may have been lost, no money or number can compensate for this outcome. If you want to help or get involved, call me on my cellular phone at 808-398-3220. Or just click here to be taken to a page where you can make a donation on line. Thank you in advance for caring and your generosity.
Note-the Firefox web browser does not work at the Kapiolani donation web site. So if your using a Macintosh computer be sure to go to the site using your Safari web browser.
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