Three floors of the Sullivan Building on the St. Francis campus in Liliha will be converted into a skilled nursing facility. (HCH photo by Patrick Downes)
Hawaii’s Sisters of St. Francis took a major step in their developing vision of long-term and elderly care with the announcement May 31 of a new 100-bed skilled nursing facility to be built at the location of their original St. Francis Hospital in Liliha.
The announcement coincided with the donation by the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation of $4 million to St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii. The presentation of the symbolic check took place in the lobby of the Sullivan Building, 40-year old former hospital that will be the site of the new facility, which will be named after the late developer and philanthropist Clarence Ching.
A dozen Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities were present at the ceremony along with the president and trustees of the Ching Foundation and other guests.
“Today is a great day” said Gerry Correa, president and chief executive officer of St. Francis Healthcare.
Raymond Tam, trustee of the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation and nephew of Clarence Ching, speaks about his uncle’s generosity at the announcement of the new St. Francis Healthcare facility.
“The combination of the passion the sisters have, the dedication of our volunteer pool, the hard work of our employees and the help of community partners” has allowed for the “revisioning” of St. Francis’ Liliha campus, he said.
Skilled nursing facilities are mainly for patients who have been discharged from acute care hospitals but who still need full-time nursing or rehabilitative services before they can return home.
The $4 million is the lead gift for the $10 million project to renovate 50,000 square feet on the building’s third, fourth and fifth floors. Most of the skilled nursing rooms will be private, not the usual case in Hawaii. Some of the rooms will be designated for hospice care. The facility is scheduled to open sometime after July 2014.
Correa cited 2012 as a “special year for St. Francis Healthcare” with the canonization of Mother Marianne Cope, who brought the first Sisters of St. Francis to Hawaii.
“We were also blessed with the return of the two hospitals,” he said, a reference to the facilities in Ewa and Liliha that Hawaii Medical Center had bought from St. Francis in 2007 and returned five years later after it had filed for bankruptcy twice and closed.
St. Francis has since sold the Ewa campus last December to The Queen’s Health Systems.
Although the Liliha acute care hospital is closed, Correa said parts of the Liliha campus have remained active with services offering cancer treatment, dialysis, endoscopy, a pharmacy and other kinds of care.
St. Francis plans additional infrastructure improvements at Liliha. These include facelifts for the lobby and courtyard, a leveling of the driveway, upgrading the Sullivan building air conditioning and painting.
Future plans call for a physical therapy center, a dietary center, same-day surgery, adult daycare and assisted living.
“We will continue with the revisioning process as we go along,” Correa said.
Sister William Marie Eleniki, president of St. Francis Healthcare Foundation of Hawaii, recalled the close relationship St. Francis Hospital had with Clarence Ching during his days as developer.
“The sisters relied on him for his wisdom and business sense,” she said.
She said that the Sullivan Building, named for Foodland founder and longtime benefactor Maurice Sullivan, was the “work of Sully and Clarence.” Ching was on the committee that raised the money to build the five-story building nearly 40 years ago.
This latest project continues “the legacy of Clarence Ching,” Sister William Marie said.
Raymond Tam, a trustee of the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation and a nephew of Clarence Ching, spoke fondly of his uncle’s business methods being influenced by the sense of respect and duty he inherited from his Chinese heritage, and the lessons of faith, hope and charity he learned from the Marianists at St. Louis High School.
Loretta Fuddy, the director of the Hawaii Department of Health, praised the sisters for staying “true to their legacy, their mission.”
“We are pleased that they are taking care of the elderly,” she said, citing the mounting needs in Hawaii.
The daily occupancy rate for nursing facilities on Oahu is 87 percent, she said. “That’s very high.”
She congratulated St. Francis for moving into this area of service, “taking care of body, mind and spirit.”
“I know the sisters will do that,” she said.
