Hawaii Island Is Getting New Federal Funds To Tackle Health Care Shortages. Is It Enough? 0 Gov.-elect Josh Green also has pledged to address problems with accessing care, especially in rural areas.
Jim Cisler was worried. He had driven his wife, Sharon, to Queens North Hawaii Community Hospital in the evening after a routine medical visit raised concerns about her heart. After fighting traffic to get to the Big Island hospital, he learned his wife had suffered a heart attack and needed a stent inserted.
But before the surgery could proceed, Cisler said he was told that his Kaiser Permanente insurance wanted him to do the procedure at a facility on Oahu. That’s how Jim found himself sitting in the back of a midnight airlift, Sharon on a gurney in front of him, heading to Kaiser’s Moanalua Medical Center on Oahu. There, she underwent some of the same intake tests she’d already taken on the Big Island. She wouldn’t get into surgery until after 7 a.m.
The delay was frustrating to Cisler, 79. “We were sitting at a hospital that could’ve taken care of her,” he said. He was glad Sharon, 81, was able to get the care she needed, but the process was much more complicated and time-consuming than he expected.
