North Hawaii Hospital to Formalize Ties With Queen’s

North Hawaii Community Hospital has agreed to become a corporate entity under the parent company of The Queen’s Medical Center on Oahu.

The affiliation, described as similar to the one between Queen’s and Molokai General Hospital, will take effect Jan. 1.

North Hawaii Community Hospital has had a clinical affiliation with Queen’s since 2005, and announced in June that it was investigating the possibility of expanding the relationship to a financial one.

Today’s announcement contained few details about the nature of the new agreements, which it said was confidential.

But it noted that Queen’s will work with NHCH to address the Waimea hospital’s “immediate needs.”

“Our priority is to create a relationship of cooperation and trust with NHCH and the people of North Hawaii,” Art Ushijima, president and CEO of The Queen’s Health Systems, said in a statement.

“Given NHCH‘s challenging financial situation, an immediate focus is to stabilize the hospital so that it may start to focus on programs and services for its growth and development — a process which was started under Ho‘okahua, NHCH‘s performance improvement program.”

“This affiliation represents a huge step forward in our ability to meet the healthcare needs of the community of North Hawaii and continue to deliver high quality healthcare at a reasonable cost,” said Bob Momsen, chairman of the NHCH Board of Directors. “Having Queen‘s as our partner will improve every aspect of the hospital.”

A press conference was scheduled Tuesday morning at The Queen’s Medical Center to discuss the agreement.