Over 130 health care professionals convene for Maui County Healthcare Stakeholders’ Summit

Health care professionals, administrators, educators, government leaders and nonprofit directors from Maui, Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi gathered for a daylong meeting aimed at building bridges and finding solutions to Maui County’s health care woes. The conference, sponsored by the Hawaiʻi State Rural Health Association, was billed as “a collaborative conversation to move from crisis to solutions.”

The conference focused on three key themes:

• “Making the invisible visible:” Reveal the scope of Maui County’s health care
  network inadequacies with physician and broader workforce shortage data, wildfire
  recovery insights and rising mental health needs.
• “We are better together:” Highlight partnerships and innovative solutions from
  workforce retention strategies to ʻāina-based behavioral health training and peer-to-peer
  youth counseling for teens.
• “We are the answer:” (“Holomua”): Bring together key leaders from the health
  care industry and community sector in a paneled discussion.

Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen and Hawaiʻi Gov. Josh Green spoke at the conference, and US Congresswoman Jill Tokuda sent in a video.

“We are grateful to Governor Green for laying out a roadmap on workforce development and solutions to rural health care woes; his expertise really shined,” said Nicole Apoliona, MD, summit co-chair.

Mayor Bissen called on attendees to break down silos, reminding the audience that there is “No cavalry coming to save us;” it is up to the people in the room to solve our health care problems.

Apoliona added, “It has been a long-time dream to convene health care stakeholders, share data, really talk about priorities and think through solutions. This was not just a one-day event, it provided a framework for moving forward.”

Through a new collaboration with the Maui Economic Development Board’s Maui County Healthcare Partnership (MCHP), the Maui County Healthcare Stakeholders’ Summit sought to transform dialogue into action. The summit’s facilitated small-group sessions expanded upon MCHP’s six priority areas: aging, housing, wellness and prevention, reimbursement rates, provider recruitment and retention, and grow-your-own workforce — while adding two new community-driven priorities: behavioral health and transportation access. This partnership created a dynamic framework to move Maui County’s healthcare goals from discussion to coordinated, sustained impact.

“The goal of the conference was to have a conversation that goes beyond naming the pukas,” said Summer Mochida-Meek, summit co-chair and executive director of the Hawaiʻi State Rural Health Association, the conference sponsor. “Our Maui wildfire study of over 2,000 County residents, dubbed ‘A story of despair,’ shed a light on the far-reaching effects of the Maui fires, and highlighted our health care crisis. It felt important to bring the community together to think about solutions and chart a path forward.”

The conference started with Ke Kula ʻO Piʻilani led by Poʻokula (Head of School), Lani Eckart-Dodd. “It reminded all of us why we are here,” said Apoliona.