Healthcare in Kauaʻi

We visited West Kauai Medical Center recently and this post is a small thank you for excellent medical
service. Everything went smoothly and the staff was uniformly friendly and competent.

While visitors don't think about this when considering the trip, we do read in the papers about visitors needing medical care unexpectedly while here. No Kauaʻi facility does complex major surgery (airlift to Honolulu for that) but the capabilities for here are hardly primitive either. Visitors with serious emergencies can get support from Visitor Aloha Society of Kauai - one of those things nobody wants to ever need, but nonetheless it's good to know it's there.

Living in Kauaʻi one often hears complaints about the level of medical care available. Many times I have heard this as the stated reason people move to the mainland or to Honolulu which has comparable facilities. No doubt regional healthcare is a major challenge in this country and being on an island makes it even harder. Certainly anyone with chronic health issues requiring specialized or intensive treatment will find it difficult if not impossible to live here.

Locally people are worried about plans to possibly close the Kalaheo Clinic and are taking action to keep the doors open. With a small population and everything being expensive here there are a number of clinics that rely on government grant subsidies, and this year money is tight.

UPDATE: The Kalaheo Clinic has just gotten a six-month extension to stay open but the battle for survival is far from over.

Healthcare is not a hypothetical issue for any of is. Coincidentally while writing this for the first time in this neighborhood we heard sirens and fire department and later ambulance arrived at a house a block away where they seem to be taking someone to the hospital. Annually 911 gets over 2000 calls for medical emergencies.