top of page

September 4, 2019

Wailea, Maui

Dr. Mark Barry brings a flag exchange back from Kajjansi Africa. 
Today's Meeting
20190904_115627_HDR (2).jpg
Past President Kit Hawkins Standing in for vacationing President Joanne Doell.
Inspiration
Kit announced that Gary Redfern IS our inspiration.
Hawaiian Word of the Day:  Na Wai Eha
4 Streams of Maui; Waihe’e, Waiehu, Wailuku, Waikapu.  These waters have sustained the Hawaiian people.  They help recharge the ground water supply that sustains more than half of Maui’s residents and visitors.  During the Sugar cane days, these waters were diverted to the fields for irrigation.  Now it goes to homes and golf courses.

Introduction of Guests:  

 

                                         Andreas Buecheler: Germany

                                         Rose Perreira: Haiku

                                         Malia Johnson: Kihei

                                         Soory Kaur: Pukalani

                                         Jasmine Esguerra: Kula

Maui Minute
Soory Kaur was introduced to a gentleman on one of her trips to Maui.  His name was familiar to her.  She had relatives with the same last name.  After being around him for a while, she found out that she was related to him through a distant relative.  They were “Kissing Cousins”.

Announcements:

 

Joanne travelled from Minnesota, and is currently in California.

                            

School Supply Drive: Scheduled for September 21 at the Kihei Safeway.

You can also pick up supplies for donation at many stores that are having “Back to School” sales.

WalMart always has deeply discounted items for kids.

                             

Gloria Lukens is looking for someone to help her out by taking over some of her duties

                             

Mark Harbison gave us an update on the upcoming RI Convention in Honolulu.

​

Dr. Mark Barry, visiting from his travels, updated us on his Rotary supported project that takes retired surgeons to hospitals in Africa to train surgeons to train more surgeons …Training the trainers.

Today's Speaker
Michael Rembis, CEO of Maui Memorial Medical Center
20190904_115800_Crop.jpg

Mike is a career community hospital administrator who came here three years as administrator Maui Health that runs our community hospitals. Maui Health has three campuses serving residents and tourists. Maui Memorial Medical Center, the main hospital in Wailuku, a campus in Kula and one on Lanai. Kula hospital was built in 1934 and holds over 100 patients for acute and long-term care, a radiology deportment, lab and 24/7 emergency care. The Lanai Community Hospital has 4 emergency room bays, 4 acute care and 4 long-term care beds plus radiology and lab. 


The main hospital was a state hospital for 60 years and now is only affiliated with Kaiser (not owned by Kaiser), which has taken the $60 million burden off the state by leasing the facility for 30 years. This is an experiment for Kaiser which is making all their resources available. This is different from a regular Kaiser hospital where only Kaiser enrollees and patients can participate. Kaiser and non-Kaiser doctors, and all insurance companies participate at Maui Health.

​

Mike's first focus has been to improve the quality of everything at the hospital. To do this they have been hiring many new good people. When he started there were 200 nurses from the mainland working at the hospital. Since then they have been hiring every graduate from the UH Maui nursing program.

There are not enough doctors on Maui. We need 100 to get even close to the ratios on the mainland. So last year they recruited 2 board-certified, fellowship-trained neurosurgeons (there were none on Maui). They also do spines, which also wasn't available here before. They also just brought in Maui's first oncological surgeon for cancer surgery. As the Maui Memorial emergency room is the second busiest in the state of Hawaii, they brought in a trauma surgeon and a new vascular surgeon, two new cardiologists and a nephrologist. They plan to hire two more oncologists, another urologist, gastroenterologist, internal medicine, pulmonologist, cardiologist, psychiatrist, nephrologist and more this year. With the six new docs in place many people have been able to avoid having to fly to Oahu or the mainland for procedures. The goal is to get quality healthcare here for any problem except for very unusual situations.

​

There are 3 interventional cardiac surgeons on call 24/7 and 2 neurosurgeons and a neurointerventionalist providing some of the best heart and stroke care in the country. They can get a stroke patient from the emergency room into surgery in 20 minutes, much faster than the national standard of 1 hour. Because of this American Heart Association just awarded a Gold Plus award to both of these hospital programs. This will be published in the U.S. News and World Report's list of best hospitals in the country this year. Maui Health is doing better than the Hawaii and National standards on heart-care, infection rates, and blood clot incidents in almost every case. 

​

Doctors' salaries are less here than on the West Coast because for Medicare, Hawaii is grouped with Guam and the Martial Islands, and we don't have enough senators to get Congress to move more physical salary money here. Because of the need, the federal government does help financially to bring doctors here, but a pattern has been for doctors to only stay on Maui for a year or two. Looking for  docs who want the outdoors advantages and lifestyle of Maui and want to commit to stay and make a bigger difference than they can on the Mainland, Maui Health is interviewing physicians from small towns who don't have kids yet but want to on Maui or those with grown kids who want to work another 20 years and retire here. Maui Health doesn't hire the doctors, but recruits them and covers their overhead for a private practice in a clinic or the Maui Lani facility next to Kaiser. One of the biggest challenges is helping the spouses to integrate into the community (perhaps Rotary can help with that!).

​

All the hospitals in the system are being upgraded. The amount of time between entering and exiting the emergency room is being shortened. They're also developing more programs for community activities, like diabetes seminars, a little league celebration, the Maui Fair with wellness & blood pressure checks, . After getting two new oncologists, they plan to build a cutting-edge comprehensive cancer center in association with a major university as well as improvements in neurosciences, diabetes limb-preservation, bariatric surgery (surgery to reduce the entrance to the stomach for weight, blood pressure and diabetes reduction, now done with minimal invasive laparoscopy as a one-day procedure), and joint replacement, programs. Currently trauma surgeons are on call 24/7, but next year, they will physically be in the hospital 24/7. They're creating a CIA (Clinical Integrated Network) to get the doctors back in the hospital. The need is still too low for the hospital to have an in-house rehabilitation center or a neonatal ICU, and robotic surgery will wait for fellowship-trained surgeons. 

​

Although there's a great helipad at the hospital, the county keeps the helicopter at the airport and contract with an upcountry pilot and crew, so Mike is negotiating with the county to keep the helicopter at the hospital with a crew at the hospital 24/7. Ambulances are partners with the county stationed at the hospital.

The state is giving a financial subsidy for the next few years until the private organization starts turning a profit. The hospital is non-profit and there has always been a 501(c)3 foundation with it's own board that raises money for the hospital. They gave $1 million to help bring in the new neurosurgeons. Most of the authority to run the hospital is in a local community governing board with three Kaiser members and four community members and a couple of physicians. Kaiser, which is responsible for the facility, has some say in the budget. The hospital now has union contracts and can use Kaiser's national purchasing contracts to save millions of dollars on the cost of supplies and services. The Kaiser physicians on island are also helping to improve the quality of care.

​

In the past two years they've halved the number of beds for people who did not need acute continued hospital care, but for whom there was not outpatient care facilities. Maui Health no longer has to cancel surgeries because of a lack of beds. There's a plan for the state (which still owns the facilities that Kaiser leases) to double the number of beds within the next 10–20 years.

​

Remember, “Our Community, Our Hospital”

​

Double click on the photo for Mike's slide show.

The Field trip to Kealia Pond was both fun and interesting.

​

Double-click on a photo to start the slide show and come along on the tour.

Pau Hana 

​

On Thursday evening, August 29, members and guests dined, played a 50's trivia game and bathed in the glow of a Maui sunset.

 

20190829_184207 copy.jpg
20190829_183727 copy.jpg
20190829_183718 copy 2.jpg
20190829_184158.jpg
20190904_125946_Crop.jpg

Flag Exchange​

      

We swapped flags with one from returning guest Soory Kaur's  Mission San Rafael Rotary Club.

Happy Dollars:  

​

      Stuart

      Happy for:  Very appreciative of the tour.  Learned a lot

     

      Charlotte

      Happy for: Very happy because her cat is doing well at 19 years old.  Good company for her.

20190904_130312_HDR (2).jpg

Magic Marble:

​

Pot value: $946           

 

Number of Marbles:  6 Blue, 1 Gold        

 

Person drawing: Elisa

​

Color of marble drawn: Blue

​

Result: Awww!!!

Reminder to all: Watch and listen and be prepared to do an Act of Kindness to someone in your world in 2019.

 

Reminder to all:  Our guest speaker for our next meeting on Wednesday, September 11, will be Frank Szczepanski, East Chicago Lead Crisis

In the World of Wacky and Unusual Commemoration Days (or Wacky Month):  Today is “Newspaper Carrier’s Day”, that is if you can find one.  No longer many of them around.

September 5th is “Be Late For Something Day”.  We can all do this one….although it may be hard for some.

Meeting ended at:  1:15 p.m

Stu—sang us out the door. Mahalo nui loa--Thank you very much  and a hui hou! --until we meet again.

NEWSLETTER REPORTER
Dennis Bagshaw
NEWSLETTER PHOTOGRAPHER
Sally Dean
NEWSLETTER LAYOUT
Steve Moksnes
NEWSLETTER EDITORS
Joanne Doell
Stuart Karlan
bottom of page