A Weekly Publication of the People of Queen’s

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Volume 21 – Number 52 December 24, 2012

QHS Acquires Former HMC West Assets

The Queen’s Health Systems, corpo-rate parent of The Queen’s Medical Cen-ter, has officially acquired the former Hawai‘i Medical Center (HMC) West campus from St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawai‘i. Both parties signed closing documents that enable Queen’s to acquire and open the former HMC West campus. This is the final step in

the real estate transaction. The cam-pus will be named The Queen’s Medical Center–West O‘ahu. Queen’s plans to open the hospital in early 2014.

St. Francis Healthcare System had sold its East (Liliha) and West campuses to Hawai‘i Medical Center in January 2007, but the new owners subsequently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorga-

nization twice—the first time in August 2008, and again in June 2011—then be-gan to completely wind down hospital operations at the Liliha and West cam-puses, starting with the closure of its emergency departments. The two HMC hospitals closed at the end of 2011. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Faris ordered the return of the hospital as-

Queen’s Medical Center–West Oahu campus, please visit www.queens.org. The public is also invited to call The Queen’s Medical Center–West Oahu Infoline at 808-691-5048 for inquiries and updates.

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QMC–West O‘ahu(Continued from page 1.)sets of the former Hawai‘i Medical Cen-ter to St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawai‘i and its affiliates On April 25, 2012. The assets included properties and equipment at both the East (Liliha) and West campuses of the former HMC.

“Transferring the ownership of the West O‘ahu hospital assets to Queen’s is an important milestone for St. Francis,” said Jerry Correa, President and Chief Executive Officer of St. Francis Health-care System of Hawai‘i. “We recognize the critical need to reopen hospital and emergency services in West O‘ahu. We believe Queen’s solid track record of qual-ity care and thorough understanding of Hawai‘i’s culture and the health needs of the local community make it ideally suit-ed to operate the West Hospital. We have a deep appreciation for their mission.” St. Francis Healthcare System will keep the East (Liliha) campus and continue to operate its other non-hospital based ser-vices, including hospice care in people’s homes island-wide, at nursing homes, and its own inpatient hospice centers in Nu‘uanu and the West O‘ahu campus; home health on O‘ahu and Kaua‘i; bath-ing and personal grooming services; and other health care services.

“The Queen’s Medical Center is look-ing forward to working together with the West O‘ahu community to open the campus as The Queen’s Medical Cen-ter–West O‘ahu …,” said Art Ushijima, QHS/QMC President. “We are commit-ted to being good partners and good neighbors [in building] a health care fa-cility the [community] will be proud to support and utilize.” Recalling Queen’s founding in 1859 by Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV, Art noted that Queen’s has served its mission of pro-

viding quality health care services for over 153 years. “We look forward to serving the people of West O‘ahu with the same standard of excellence that has been the foundation of our found-ers’ values and vision,” he said.

The acquisition of the land and fa-cilities along with planned improve-ments will exceed $70 million. Major improvements at The Queen’s Medical Center–West O‘ahu campus will in-clude an expansion and modernization of emergency, surgical, and imaging services. Further terms of the agree-ment are confidential.

For future updates about the The

1. Art Ushijima, QHS/QMC President, and Jerry Correa, President and CEO of St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawai‘i, hold a press conference on December 14 an-nouncing the QHS acquisition of the for-mer Hawai‘i Medical Center–West. 2. Front entrance to what will become The Queen’s Medical Center–West O‘ahu. 3. Aerial view of the West O‘ahu campus.

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Honu-lulu HolidaysHonu-lulu Holidays was the theme for this year’s annual QHS decorating contest. Three dozen heavy duty corru-gated cardboard creatures were carved by CTS transporter and award winning artist Mark Chai and distributed as the springboard for staff creativity.

“Why do so many have to be so good—we only get to pick three,” lamented one judge. Even with the Honorable Mention picks, it really didn’t do justice to the ef-fort, creativity, and thought that went into the 32 entries. No one can refute the sheer artistry and realism of first place winner Mel Komatsu of Cardiac Inva-sive and his seven-year-old niece Sabrina Sato’s entry (1). Mel spent three weeks working on it, and it showed. Not content to stun with his adroit sculpting, his honu was tangled in a net remnant of plastic rubbish and accompanied by a message to care for the ocean and its denizens.

Second Place went to Tony Negrillo and the Diamond Head nurses at Queen

Emma Clinics (2). Tony’s entry wowed not just because it was meticulously cov-ered with shells that he handpicked on the beaches of Tahiti, but because the entire nurses’ station was transformed into a honu haven with colorful cutouts of coral, reef fish, and delicate dangling jelly fish accompanied by a soundtrack of “Under the Sea” from Disney’s Little Mermaid. Aunty honu “Lulu” sported a lauhala papale and was perched on a wave made from a party tablecloth.

Third Place went to Neuroscience’s Johanna del Castillo who decorated her honu with Pele’s hair, succulents, shells, and rocks, creating a “living” entry (3).

Honorable Mentions went to Endosco-py for Jessica Dolores’ stylish rendering of the King and Queen embellished with flourishes and repurposed endo items, and a glitzy glamorous gold-glittered honu by Dallas Cabinatan of Telecom.

So those were the official winners, but the real story goes deeper. For the first time, a patient entered the compe-tition—a 15 year-old from the Family

Treatment Center hand painted an un-derwater scene of mermaids and mer-men enjoying a lively Christmas party and gift exchange. Outside the main OR, the spirit of participation gushed from Tracey Barber-Holland as she said, “I love that you do this every year. We are really excited to make something and to share our message.” The OR en-try was a chubby rascal heavily padded with the packaging materials generated by just two surgeries, offered up with an environmentally conscious manifesto.

Geriatrics created a stunning haku lei from recycled paper that wound sinu-

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www.queens.org

Th e Queen’s Medical Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofi t corporation.

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A yearly blessing has come out of tragedy. Carol Peterson lost her 23-year-old son in 2007. Her son Scott was in an accident and brought to Queen’s Neurointenstive Care Unit, but he passed away after 17 days. Carol was appreciative of the care, kindness, and thoughtfulness of Queen’s doctors and nurses. Carol later visited QET 5 bear-ing a donation of 15 care bags created by her family for the families of ICU patients who were there during the Christmas season.

The idea of care bags was a good one, so when the women’s group at her church in La‘ie wanted to do a service project, Carol contacted Queen’s. For two years now, they have provided care

bags to kupuna (elders) cared for by Queen’s Community-Based Programs. For some kupuna, the care bag will be the only Christmas gift they will re-ceive. One hundred fifteen lap blan-kets and care bags were given this year. Each bag contained a calendar, pen, note book, crayons, coloring and cross-word puzzle books, and toiletries. “It’s great to focus on someone else and not on ourselves,” said Carol. Indeed it is—that’s what Christmas is really about.

Above: (First five from front are from the church; the rest from CBP) Carol Peterson, Jill Rapozo, Annette Christensen, Pritika Purcell an son Dominic, Gail O’Connor, Renee Sato-Yuen, Virginia Ahuna, Chat Augustin, Amy Kuraoka-Goo, and Uluwehi Urata.

Christmas From the Heart

ously across their honu’s shell. Their entry explained that “honu are like ku-puna…and caring for them is vital to the health of our community, and caring with compassion and enthusiasm makes a happy, healthy environment for all.” The Hawaiian version of the 12 Days of Christmas was Pauahi 7’s theme. “The staff really had fun with it,” nurse man-ager Mike Morimoto commented. That seemed to be true of many entries (4).

On Nalani 2, Rehab’s Winston Ma-tas, winner of last year’s contest, re-called December evenings from his childhood of barbe-cuing on the beach with the starry sky overhead. His en-try was like looking through a window back into time and

small kid memories of days gone by. Not to be overlooked was Radiation Oncolo-gy’s Rosemary Kimbrall, who turned her honu into a chess table and decorated the pedestal base with a beach scene made from recycled items. “My family loves to camp during the holidays and we always play games and clean up the beach,” she explained. A grinning honu covered in Queen’s 150th anniversary aloha print fabric from IV Therapy charmed the judges with his winsome smile. A fluffy tuxedoed Santa honu by Kamehameha 4 staff came with a fanciful story about a night on the town with Mrs. Santa. Notre Dame football’s #5, Manti Te’o, made an appearance as a honu over at Diabetes Education, and an upended plastic bowl was used to create a snow globe effect by Pharmacy. There really was something charming, witty, or artistic in every en-try. Together they illustrated the heart of the competition’s purpose: to bring staff together to celebrate the season.

Honu-lulu Holidays

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