Franciscan Sisters Helen Agnes Ignacio (seated), Francis Regis Hadano and Rose Annette Ahuna look at a mural of St. Marianne Cope in the Sullivan Building lobby, April 24. (HCH photo | Darlene Dela Cruz)
St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii celebrated April 24 the completion of “Phase I” of its new St. Francis Kupuna Village, a project aimed to be a “wellness hub” for local seniors and their caregivers.
More than 100 people gathered at St. Francis’ campus in Liliha for the grand opening ceremony. Guests included government leaders, contractors and benefactors. Members of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, Bishop Larry Silva, deacons and clergy attended as well in support of the Islands’ only Catholic healthcare system.
St. Francis Kupuna Village represents the organization’s shift from decades of acute hospital care to a focus on senior services. The Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities and St. Francis executives were encouraged by community suggestions to reconfigure its former Liliha hospital property for elderly care needs.
In 2007, St. Francis Healthcare sold the Liliha hospital and its medical center in Ewa Beach to the secular, for-profit Hawaii Medical Center group. HMC filed for bankruptcy twice before both properties were returned to St. Francis’ ownership in 2011.
The Ewa Beach hospital was bought by Queen’s Medical Center in 2012 and remains an acute care facility. In Liliha, St. Francis initiated a major-scale renovation to establish the future Kupuna Village. The facility will feature comprehensive onsite senior services including assisted living, adult day care and medical specialists. “Kupuna” is the Hawaiian word for grandparent or elder.
The April 24 grand opening of Kupuna Village “Phase I” unveiled extensive remodeling of the Sullivan Building, previously St. Francis acute care hospital. Its top three floors are now the Clarence T.C. Ching Villas, a 119-bed skilled nursing facility.
The villas offer private and semi-private rooms for patients who are discharged from hospitals but still in need of short-term rehabilitation before returning home. Each floor, designed by Architects Hawaii, is named and decorated for Oahu locales. The third floor honors the North Shore, the fourth floor represents Waikiki, and the fifth evokes Honolulu’s Chinatown.
The Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation provided a lead gift of $4 million for the renovation of the skilled nursing floors. Patients will be accepted once the facility receives its license from the Hawaii State Department of Health.
The Sullivan Building lobby was refurbished as well to include two new health services. Hawaii Pacific Neuroscience and Hawaii Diagnostic Radiology Services recently set up offices there.
The lobby features a mural by Maui artist Phil Sabado, which depicts notable people in the history of St. Francis Healthcare System. At the artwork’s center is St. Marianne Cope, the Franciscan nun who founded the sisters’ Hawaii mission when she arrived from Syracuse to care for leprosy patients in 1883.
Patty Martin, vice president of mission and organizational effectiveness at St. Francis, said in her opening remarks that the project was possible because community “partnerships,” beginning with the commitment of St. Marianne herself.
Jerry Correa, St. Francis president and CEO, underscored the important role of the organization’s partners — in medicine, construction, church and government — who contributed to this first phase. The project, he said, came to fruition thanks to the dedication and faith of many people.
“I just want to say that with God, all things are possible,” Correa said.
Construction is continuing on the next phases of the Kupuna Village. A senior center is targeted for completion in 18 months. Assisted living areas are projected opening in about two years. Independent living town homes are scheduled to be constructed in five years.
