Lease Agreement for Maui Hospitals Approved

Governor David Ige (lt) and Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa (rt). Bill signing ceremony at Maui Memorial Medical Center. (06.10.15) File photo credit: Ryan Piros/County of Maui.

Governor David Ige today announced that the Hawaiʻi Health Systems Corporation entered into a lease agreement late yesterday with Maui Health Systems (a Kaiser Foundation Hospitals LLC) covering the facilities of Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kula Hospital & Clinic, and Lānaʻi Community Hospital.

On Jan. 14, 2016, the Maui Regional Board and the HHSC Corporate Board signed an agreement transferring the operation and management of the three Maui facilities from the state to the new Kaiser entity.

“The goal is to ensure access to quality healthcare services and improved delivery of those services for the Maui Region. Revenues generated in the Maui facilities will be invested back into providing healthcare services in the Maui Region,” said Gov. Ige in a statement.

Maui Health Systems is scheduled to convene operations of the hospitals on July 1, 2016.

The HHSC operates 13 facilities throughout the state including: East Hawaiʻi region: Hilo Medical Center, Kaʻū Hospital, Hale Hoʻola Hamakua and Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home; West Hawaiʻi region: Kona Community Hospital and Kohala Hospital; Maui region; Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kula Hospital and Clinic, and Lānaʻi Community Hospital; Oʻahu region: Leʻahi Hospital and Maluhia; and Kauaʻi region: West Kauaʻi Medical Center, and Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital, in addition to two non-profit affiliates.

In 1996, at a time when health care services were not widely available from private providers, the Legislature established HHSC to assume that responsibility.

The Maui Region of HHSC serves over 11,000 inpatients and sees over 45,000 people in the emergency room each year. With over 1,500 employees, Maui Memorial Medical Center is the only full-service, acute-care medical facility in the County, and the only hospital outside of Oʻahu providing a full range of cardiac services, including open heart surgery and angioplasty.

Kaiser Permanente Hawaii has provided total health to the people of Hawaiʻi for more than 50 years, with physicians who are members of the Hawaiʻi Permanente Medical Group, the largest multi-specialty physician group practice in the state.