STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1788

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.C.R. No. 198

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Health and Human Services and Public Housing, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 198 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE HEALTHCARE ASSOCIATION OF HAWAII TO EXAMINE THE PROBLEM OF PATIENTS IN ACUTE CARE HOSPITALS WAITLISTED FOR LONG TERM CARE AND TO PROPOSE SOLUTIONS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to ensure that acute care hospital patients have access to long term care by requesting the Healthcare Association of Hawaii to examine the problem of patients in acute care hospitals being waitlisted for long term care and to propose solutions.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services, the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Kaiser Permanente, Queens Medical Center, Hawaii Disability Rights Center, and Hawaii Long Term Care Association.

     Your Committees find that, during the past year, more than two hundred patients in hospitals statewide, who were well enough to be discharged from acute care hospitals but who were in need of long term care, have been waitlisted because long term care facilities were not available.  Thus, the current short supply of acute care hospital beds is becoming even scarcer for patients with greater medical needs.  Your Committees further find that the Healthcare Association of Hawaii is the appropriate organization to conduct this research and propose solutions to the long term care facility shortage because their membership includes all of Hawaii's hospitals and long term care facilities.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services and Public Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 198 and recommend its adoption.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services and Public Housing,

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair