An artist’s rendering of the future independent living complex for seniors at the Liliha Kupuna Village, a new venture of the St. Francis Healthcare System. (image courtesy of Gregg Maedo + Associates, Inc.)
Jerry Correa, St. Francis’ president and chief executive officer
The Islands’ only Catholic healthcare system has undergone many changes in the last several years, and this summer it continues to make strides in a long-term plan to provide quality medical, social and therapeutic services.
St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii is slated to complete at the end of this month its first phase of construction on the new Clarence T.C. Ching Skilled Nursing Facility in Liliha. The project will provide 119 beds for patients — particularly the elderly — who require ongoing medical attention after being discharged from acute hospital care.
Three floors of the Sullivan Building, formerly the main hospital structure on the St. Francis Liliha campus, are being renovated to create the skilled nursing facility. According to Jerry Correa, St. Francis’ president and chief executive officer, the $10 million endeavor is “on target” to open by the end of the year.
“We just have a unique opportunity,” Correa said. “It kind of goes in line with our mission, which is building healthier communities.”
The skilled nursing facility represents St. Francis’ ongoing refocusing of its programs to serve Hawaii’s growing geriatric population. After the organization’s departure from acute care in 2007, St. Francis has been exploring other ventures to keep alive the legacy of compassion and healing brought to the Islands by St. Marianne Cope 130 years ago.
Hospitals update
Renovations at the Clarence Ching Skilled Nursing Facility
The Sisters of St. Francis launched their first Hawaii hospital in Honolulu’s Liliha district in 1927. They opened a second hospital, St. Francis West, in Ewa, leeward Oahu, in 1990.
Since the 1960s, St. Francis Healthcare also pioneered local programs in dialysis, organ transplantation, hospice care, spiritual retreats and senior living assistance.
Seven years ago, St. Francis sold both of its acute care hospitals for $67.9 million to Hawaii Medical Center. HMC was a for-profit, secular venture composed of the Kansas-based Cardiovascular Hospitals of America and local doctors in the Hawaii Physicians Group.
HMC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy first in 2008 and again in 2011. The Ewa Beach and Liliha facilities were returned to St. Francis after the second bankruptcy filing.
Queen’s Medical Center bought the Ewa Beach hospital in 2012, and reopened it on May 20 of this year.
“It was clear that we’re not going to be in acute care, but the West campus needs to be an acute care facility for the population that it serves on the Leeward side,” Correa said. “So we put it in the hands of somebody who has the capability of keeping it going.”
Six acres of the Ewa Beach campus are still owned by St. Francis, the St. Francis CEO noted. This land parcel contains an inpatient hospice facility that has been in operation since 1997. The hospice is expected to close on Sept. 30, and the building will be evaluated for other St. Francis services.
“We wanted to keep some presence out there,” Correa said. “We’ve got to weigh all the options.”
Liliha Kupuna Village
HCH photo | Darlene Dela Cruz
The Sullivan Building, formerly the main hospital structure on the St. Francis Liliha campus, will be renovated into the Clarence T.C. Ching Skilled Nursing Facility.
The Liliha hospital property remains in St. Francis’ hands. Plans are underway to renovate its grounds and several buildings into a new community called the “Liliha Kupuna Village.”
The village aims to be a “one-stop shop” location with comprehensive senior services, including assisted living, adult day health, adult day care and medical specialists.
The Clarence T.C. Ching Skilled Nursing Facility will be the first completed project of the Liliha Kupuna Village. St. Francis received a $4 million grant in May 2013 from the building’s namesake foundation to help finance the skilled nursing center.
The Liliha Kupuna Village is an idea that has been germinating since 2009, Correa said. The Franciscan Sisters and the healthcare system’s leaders and board of directors met with community members to assess how the Liliha property could best meet local health needs. “Kupuna” is the Hawaiian word for grandparent or elder.
Centralizing senior care was deemed a prudent option. St. Francis in a 2013 press release cited a report from “Health Trends in Hawaii” noting that one of five people in the Islands will be age 65 or older by 2030.
The Liliha Kupuna Village will provide more bed space and efficient medical care for the growing geriatric population.
“For the last year-and-a-half we’ve been working on fulfilling the vision of the Liliha campus,” Correa said. “We took into account the community needs, the location and the mission of the (Franciscan) Sisters. From the care coordination down, a lot of that is happening on this campus.”
“This campus is a large investment,” he added.
What will set the future Kupuna Village apart from other senior communities, Correa said, is the diversity of its specialized services. It will allow seniors to have onsite access to The Cancer Center of Hawaii, Clinical Laboratories, radiology, dialysis and other practitioners with offices already in the Liliha complex.
About 40 physicians currently have private practices at the St. Francis site. Dr. Kore Liow of Hawaii Pacific Neuroscience — a specialist in treating dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease and stroke — signed a lease last month to offer services on the property.
The Ching Skilled Nursing Facility will be the cornerstone in aiding and rehabilitating senior patients. The facility will include about 55 private rooms and 32 double suites. The staff will be equipped to handle medically complex conditions that call for round-the-clock care.
Upcoming additions to the Kupuna Village will nurture seniors socially and spiritually as well. There are plans for a senior community center, which will house a gym, spa and the St. Marianne Cope chapel. A “bistro” restaurant will provide healthy meals.
In the planning stages, Correa said, are Kupuna Village apartment complexes with affordable private units for independent and assisted senior living. Adult day services are also in the works.
“We’re trying to position ourselves from a holistic standpoint,” Correa said. “Nobody’s doing all of this, and I think the strength of our services is not in the individual services, but the sum of all of its parts.”
Reaction from the public, particularly from nearby senior residents and their caregivers, to the new St. Francis venture has been good, Correa said.
“Overall we’ve had very positive feedback,” he said. “The market analysis that we’ve done shows the demand” for the Kupuna Village.
Other program updates
St. Francis Healthcare System in recent months has also been assessing its other programs and making changes to streamline services.
The Maurice J. Sullivan Family Hospice Center in Ewa Beach will close in September. St. Francis will, however, maintain its extensive home hospice program and the Sister Maureen Keleher Hospice Center in Nuuanu.
The St. Francis home health program on Oahu and Kauai was terminated at the end of June. Ending last month as well was the Healthy Lifestyles program, which conducted education sessions primarily in Oahu’s Catholic elementary schools.
St. Francis will continue to provide bathing and personal care services for older adults. Its adult day care center in Manoa remains open.
Franciscan Vistas Ewa, an independent senior living community launched in 2011, is doing well, said Correa. Many people are signing up for its affordable rental units, which are reserved for tenants age 62 and older with household incomes less than 60 percent of Honolulu’s median annual income.
Connected to Franciscan Vistas Ewa is the St. Francis Intergenerational Center. Opened in February, the center houses a preschool and adult day care program. The preschool “graduated” its first class of 10 kids last month. Correa said the center’s enrollment continues to grow.
Our Lady of Keaau, a St. Francis program in Waianae, is thriving as a retreat center and outreach service to the homeless. The ministry recently was bequeathed with a shore-front home in Ewa Beach, named the “Blessings House,” to be used for spiritual retreats.
The Franciscan legacy
With the new Kupuna Village and its myriad other programs, Correa said St. Francis Healthcare reflects the Franciscan Sisters’ willingness to adapt to societal needs.
He said St. Marianne Cope, who dedicated the second half of her life to the Hansen’s disease patients of Kalaupapa, had a similar disposition to provide “what was in the best interest of the people that we serve in Hawaii.”
“She was always open to change,” Correa said. “There’s all kinds of challenges that she would deal with that’s all relative to what we’re having today. That’s what we’re doing now — we’re adapting to change.”
Franciscan Sister William Marie Eleniki, president of the St. Francis Healthcare Foundation of Hawaii, said the healthcare system is always careful to make decisions with St. Marianne as a guiding example.
“The legacy of St. Marianne and the Sisters of St. Francis is about meeting the unmet needs of Hawaii’s people,” Sister William Marie said. “The sisters’ compassion continues to this day.”
“Our healthcare mission is creating healthy communities; that includes Hawaii’s growing elder population and the vulnerable,” she added. “We are following in the footsteps of St. Francis and St. Marianne, going where the needs are.”
