A Sweeping Plan To Reinvent Kauai’s Oldest Hospital Is ‘Getting Close To The Vision’ 0 The projected $400 million project on the 34-acre property would upgrade the medical facility while creating a civic hub around schools, pubic safety and affordable housing.
Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital was built in 1917 to isolate and treat people diagnosed with tuberculosis. Once admitted, patients were not permitted to leave.
Set on a green bluff overlooking the Kapaa coast, the hospital had its own dairy, hog farm and wood shop — self-sufficiency measures to contain the spread of contagious disease.
After a cure for tuberculosis became widely available in the 1950s, the hospital was rebuilt and repurposed as a long-term care and mental health facility.
Now Kauai’s oldest operating hospital is on the verge of its third reinvention. By spring, hospital officials aim to finalize a far-reaching plan to close some of the many gaps in the island’s health care system, especially for kupuna and people with mental illness.
