REPORT TITLE:
Hana Community Health Center


DESCRIPTION:
Makes an appropriation of $200,000 to enable the Hana community
health center to continue its operations through the current
fiscal year.  Appropriates $1,000,000 in FY 1999-2000 and
$1,000,000 in FY 2000-2001 to the Hana community health center to
allow the center to continue its current level of operations.
(SB992 HD1)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                        992
THE SENATE                              S.B. NO.           S.D. 2
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                H.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE HANA COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER.



BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the State transferred
 
 2 the Hana medical center to the Hana community health center in
 
 3 July 1997, with a guarantee to continue providing needed
 
 4 financial support for the center's essential medical programs.
 
 5 This commitment is part of Act 263, Session Laws of Hawaii 1996,
 
 6 which provided for the transfer.  The Hana community would not
 
 7 have accepted this transfer without the commitment to assure the
 
 8 center's continued viability.
 
 9      Hana is one of the most isolated areas in the State.  During
 
10 the rainy season from October to March, the frequent storms often
 
11 wash out the roadways and disrupt electricity and telephone
 
12 service.  Hana town is fifty-seven miles from Wailuku and the
 
13 trip takes two hours along a single lane road with six hundred
 
14 seventeen turns and fifty-six one-lane bridges.  The district is
 
15 made up of small, isolated settlements scattered over more than
 
16 two hundred square miles.  Many of the villages are located a
 
17 minimum of forty-five minutes from the main town of Hana.
 
18      The Hana community health center provides a hybrid of
 
19 services.  Unlike most clinics, the center must also coordinate
 
20 activities with the ambulance services and provide assistance in
 

 
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 1 stabilizing patients with life-threatening illness or traumatic
 
 2 injury.  This needs to be done twenty-four-hours-a-day because
 
 3 the center is the only health care provider in the district.  The
 
 4 coordination of emergency services and provision of life support
 
 5 care is absolutely essential to the three thousand residents of
 
 6 Hana and the five hundred thousand tourists who visit annually.
 
 7      Hana also has the dubious distinction of consistently having
 
 8 some of the worst health and socioeconomic indicators in the
 
 9 State.  Native Hawaiians account for sixty-five per cent of all
 
10 the center's patients.  Hana is federally designated both as a
 
11 medically underserved population and as a health professional
 
12 shortage area.  The center currently provides prevention oriented
 
13 health care, acute and chronic care, urgent care, limited
 
14 laboratory testing, limited x-ray services, and pre-packaged
 
15 medications in lieu of a full pharmacy.  Home health care is also
 
16 provided and seniors and those with mobility problems have
 
17 benefitted from this program.  In fiscal year 1997-1998, the
 
18 center provided services to two thousand three hundred individual
 
19 patients who made over six thousand patient visits, a fourteen
 
20 per cent increase over the previous year.
 
21      The legislature finds that the center received an
 
22 appropriation of $800,000 during the last legislative session, or
 
23 $264,000 less than the preceding year.  The center needs at least
 

 
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 1 $1,000,000 to operate at current levels.  Left unfunded, the
 
 2 center will be required to eliminate its urgent care component on
 
 3 March 1, 1999, as a cost-cutting measure.  Furthermore, the Hana
 
 4 community health center requires $1,000,000 in fiscal biennium
 
 5 1999-2001 to maintain its current level of operations.
 
 6      The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds:
 
 7      (1)  For FY 1998-1999 to the Hana community health center to
 
 8           continue operations for the current fiscal year; and
 
 9      (2)  To the Hana community health center to allow it to
 
10           continue its current operations.
 
11      SECTION 2.  There is appropriated out of the general
 
12 revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $200,000 or so much
 
13 thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 1998-1999 to enable
 
14 Hana community health center to continue its operations through
 
15 the current fiscal year.
 
16      SECTION 3.  There is appropriated out of the general
 
17 revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $1,000,000 or so much
 
18 thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 1999-2000 and the sum
 
19 of $1,000,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal
 
20 year 2000-2001 to allow the Hana community health center to
 
21 continue its current level of operations.
 

 
 
 
 
 
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                                     S.B. NO.           S.D. 2
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 1      SECTION 4.  The sums appropriated shall be expended by the
 
 2 department of health for the purposes of this Act.
 
 3      SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 1999.