STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2793

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2814

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2814 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HILO MEDICAL CENTER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to make an appropriation for the equipment and construction of a second full-time catheterization laboratory at the Hilo Medical Center in the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation East Hawaii Region.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawai‘i System; Office of the Mayor of the County of Hawai‘i; United Public Workers, AFSCME, Local 646, AFL-CIO; Hawaii Health Systems Corporation; Hilo Medical Center Foundation; and twenty-six individuals.

Your Committee finds that the Hilo Medical Center Interventional Cardiac Program began service on January 1, 2019. Since July 1, 2019, interventional cardiac catheterization for the treatment of heart attacks has been available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for the residents of east Hawaii. In the last year, over forty heart attacks have been treated in the catheterization lab. An additional one hundred eighty-one patients were electively treated with stents for artery blockages, preventing future heart attacks.

Your Committee further finds that the cardiac lab is now at full capacity and a second lab is needed to meet the demand for cardiac services in east Hawaii. An additional lab will also ensure the availability of critical lifesaving equipment.

Your Committee notes that the request for the equipment and construction of a second full-time catheterization laboratory at the Hilo Medical Center is $3,500,000 and that this request is a high priority for health care providers on the island of Hawaii.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2814, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2814, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health,

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ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair