On the Run at Kaiser
Of all the things Henry J. Kaiser accomplished in Hawaii, he was most proud of his hospital, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Today, Kaiser docs and staff promote healthy
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vention and how to take responsibility for yourself, so it’s really our desire to educate. We really want you to live long and thrive.”
Liang and Sewell say that Kaiser is focused on making things easier for their patients by providing added options and more accessibility to physicians.
Among these new services is the Internet. Now patients can e-mail their doctor, get prescriptions, request an appointment and see a summary of their medical record and/or lab results online (at www.kp.org).
Also, in response to members expressing a need for longer hours, Kaiser extended its primary care and pharmacy hours at its Waipio clinic starting last month.
Now, patients can see a doctor Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Honolulu clinic is scheduled to begin offering extended hours later this year.
“That’s where we are headed, to make things easier for people because we know people live busy lives,” says Liang. “We are also hiring more primary care physicians and opening the newest in-patient facility at Moanalua in May.”
Improvements at Moanalua include a new tower (to open in April), a new mother and baby suite, a new state-of-the-art operating room and intensive care unit, and an emergency room that will be triple the size it was before.
And while Liang and Sewell agree that Henry J. Kaiser would be proud of where the hospital is at today, there is still a lot to do.
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“We want to continue to grow in this state and be able to touch more lives here,” explains Liang. “My hope is that the state and the Department of Health, and the nursing and medical schools, and the healthcare industry can really work together to solve the Neighbor Island access issue and the fact that we continue to have 100,000 people uninsured in Hawaii. I think that’s a common dream, to figure out how to ensure that everybody gets access to health-care. And our biggest challenge is keeping health insurance affordable.”
“Kaiser started because Henry J. had a work force that needed to stay well, so prepayment for prevention and early detection and wellness is really at his core, which is why what he’s most proud of is building this hospital,” adds Sewell. “I think if Henry J. was alive today he’d be amazed with the Internet and everything like that. He’d be using it. But he’d be most proud of the care we’ve been providing to Hawaii.”
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