STAND. COM. REP. NO. 109

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 406

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 406 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII HEALTH SYSTEMS CORPORATION PRIMARY CARE TRAINING PROGRAM,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation primary care training program at Hilo Medical Center.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, Hawaii State Association of Counties, Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce, The Queen's Health Systems, Hawaii Medical Association, Zonta Club of Hilo, Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Hawaii, Hilo Medical Center Foundation Board of Directors, and fifty-five individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation primary care training program is an effective way to reduce the impact of the shortage of primary care providers and improve access to health care throughout the State, especially on the neighbor islands.  Administered by Hilo Medical Center, this interdisciplinary program is centered at the Hawaii Island Family Health Center, which serves as a training site for family medicine physicians and medical students through the Hawaii island family medicine residency; advanced practice nurses from the school of nursing and dental hygiene at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the University of Hawaii at Hilo; registered nursing students from the University of Hawaii at Hilo; pharmacy students in clinical pharmacy practice from the University of Hawaii at Hilo's Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy; health psychologists from I Ola Lahui, an organization that trains psychologists to meet the needs of residents of Hawaii's rural areas; and baccalaureate nursing students from the School of Nursing at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

 

     Your Committee further finds that this interdisciplinary training model can be expanded to other neighbor island health facilities to generate interdisciplinary teams capable of caring for four times as many patients as independent practicing physicians could care for alone.  Hawaii will benefit greatly as the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation program contributes to training primary care providers in the emerging model of primary care and patient-centered medical homes, and attracts health care providers to practice in rural Hawaii, including the neighbor islands.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 406 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

 

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair