Page 4 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - Dec 29, 2021

4 HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK DECEMBER 29, 2021
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The state of Adventist Health Castle has never been better, thanks in part to its recent acquisition of Urgent Care Hawai‘i, which allows the full-service medical center to expand its reach to Ineighboring communities.
n sickness and in health, extremely innovative group. Adventist Health Cas- They’ve done an outstanding tle (formerly known job navigating through this
as Castle Medical Center) pandemic and really keep-
has stood by the Windward O‘ahu community for nearly six decades. Now, the faith- based, nonprofit integrated health system is extending its care to other areas of the island with the acquisition of Urgent Care Hawai‘i.
ing themselves relevant. We are glad to have them here to bring their innovative spirit into our broader organization and really look at how we can improve and expand the ur- gent care services that they’ve historically provided.”
Currently, there are three active Urgent Care Hawai‘i locations: Kailua (660 Kai- lua Road), Pearl City (1245 Kuala St.) and Kapolei (890 Kamokila Blvd.). A fourth lo- cation in Waikīkī/Ala Moana (1860 Ala Moana Blvd.) is temporarily closed primarily because of the reduction in tourism. The state-of-the-art facilities are open to any- one (you do not need to be a Castle patient), walk-ins are welcome and almost all insurance types are accept- ed. Services offered include immediate infant, pediatric, adult and geriatric care; basic laboratory, X-ray and tele- health services; occupation- al medicine and COVID-19 testing. With the added urgent
care centers, patients now have more options and typ- ically quicker access to care than at an emergency room.
“We want to make sure our ED (emergency department) is kept available for those that are experiencing a more trau- matic injury,” notes Ashlock, “and keep some of the things like colds, flu, sore throat, mi- nor scrapes and cuts, that are more appropriate to be in an urgent care environment, and frankly it’s more cost effec- tive for a community member to be in an urgent care than it is to be in a hospital environ- ment. As you might expect, a hospital is a little bit more ex- pensive because of the vari- ety of care that we have to be ready to provide, that’s not as true in an urgent care setting.
“As we move into this world of population health and health care, we’ re all really focused on how do we reduce the total cost of care? We want to make sure pa-
tients are being cared for in the right setting and previous- ly we didn’t have urgent care services, so we weren’t able to refer patients but now we do. It’s mutually beneficial because it’s more cost effec- tive for us.”
C astle’s Rich History
Adventist Health Castle, a full-service medical center offering a wide range of in- patient, outpatient and home- based services, opened on Jan. 16, 1963, as Castle Me- morial Hospital with 72 beds and 14 bassinets. However, the groundwork began much earlier when a small commu- nity group came together and launched a campaign in 1953 to establish a medical center in Windward O‘ahu. Accord- ing to Ashlock, there was no health care on the Windward side in the 1950s, only part- time ambulance service from 1 to 9 p.m. Friday through Tuesday.
“It was a smaller com- munity certainly at that time but driving over the old Pali Highway as I understand it was quite the drive and not an easy one,” he says. “When- ever there was a medical is- sue that came up, there were many times where physicians that lived on this side of the island had to throw them into their car and take them over to Queen’s or St. Francis. Because of that, the commu- nity that was growing really wanted to ensure there was access to health care easily and quickly.
at that point really, enough was enough, and in Decem- ber 1959, the state Board of Health approved the rezon- ing, and federal funds neces- sary to build the hospital were freed up.”
“This is something we’re really excited about,” shares Ryan Ashlock, president of Adventist Health Castle. “(One reason is) Castle does not have urgent care services, so by acquiring Urgent Care Hawai‘i, we now can com- plete the continuum of care by providing urgent care services. Secondly, we had a goal of expanding our ser- vices both here on the Wind- ward side and even beyond ... We are just really excited to be able to take the out- standing people and the care that we provide here at Castle to new communities for us.
Ashlock lists Chung and Carolyn Rankin as the med- ical center’s major propo- nents, and notes the support received from Harold K.L. Castle, who donated the 10 acres of land that Adventist Health Castle sits on today; the Seventh-day Adven- tist Church, which offered $600,000 toward construc- tion; and community contri- butions of $170,000. In 1983, the hospital changed its name to Castle Medical Center, and today, Adventist Health Cas- tle is a 160-bed facility with more than 1,000 employees.
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“Another reason why we’ re excited about having the Urgent Care Hawai‘i team join Castle is it’s an
“(During that time) there were two events that hap- pened — one was the roof caved in on five workmen at the Cornet building in Kailua and they had to then be taken via Dr. Robert Chung’s car ... then just a month later, there was a 2-year-old girl that choked on a pill, and if there had been a hospital here, she may have survived. So,
“What I always tell our leadership team and our as- sociates is that we need to
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