Maui Hospital Transition May Proceed; Injunction Dissolved

Maui hospital injunction dissolved. Maui Now graphic.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today issued an order dissolving an injunction that had temporarily barred certain transition activities relating to Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kula Hospital and Lānʻai Communty Hospital.

Based upon a settlement agreement reached on Aug. 13, 2016 between Governor and the United Public Workers union and a joint request from both parties, the Court dismissed the underlying appeal brought by UPW as moot.

Attorney General Chin said, “During oral arguments before the 9th Circuit, the judges made clear to both UPW and the State that it preferred seeing the parties settle instead of the court making an all or nothing decision. Reaching compromise is not always easy. I thank Governor Ige and the union leadership for finding a forward path.”

In 2015, the Hawaiʻi state legislature passed a law ending the Hawaiʻi Health System Corporation’s delivery of health care services at the three Maui region facilities and transferring service delivery to a private operator.

UPW had sued to stop the transition from taking place. Today’s order means that all transition activities between the State and a new Kaiser entity, Maui Health System, may resume at the three Maui region facilities.

Under the settlement:

• The Maui Region Hospitals will be transferred from Hawaiʻi Health Systems Corp. management to Kaiser not earlier than Nov. 6, 2016.
• The Maui Region hospitals will be operated and managed exclusively by Kaiser.
• UPW and bargaining unit employees will work under Kaiser supervision and direction, and will still be covered by the UPW collective bargaining agreements until those agreements expire on June 30, 2017.
• Kaiser will offer to hire UPW employees for a period of 6 months, starting on July 1, 2017.

UPW represents about 536 employees.

Maui Region Board chair Avery Chumbley expressed optimism earlier this week that the agreement was near.

At the time, he said if the injunction is lifted, Chumbley estimated that it may take eight weeks or more to go through the final process which involves technical training of staff in medical systems and equipment.