Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi will expand with an at-home hospice care program on Oʻahu.
The expansion is part of the work to align more with Kaiser’s Southern California region, which has a more robust hospice program.
Dr. Johnnie Yates, medical director for the program, said this has been in the works for the last few years and has always seemed to be desired by patients.
"We've had a group of folks that were eligible for hospice, and didn't want to enroll with an outside hospice agency," Yates explained. " I think there was also this expectation that, certainly from patients, that we should be able to provide this service as well, especially with this fully integrated healthcare system.
We're taking care of folks from birth until the end of life," Yates said.
Hospice is typically designed for those with a life expectancy of six months or less, with no curative or life-prolonging treatment. Eligible Kaiser patients are currently routed to outside agencies.
The hospice program is being wrapped into the pre-existing medical record system, so all the patient records will be accessible within the system.
"Let's say if it's a person with advanced cancer, and they have an oncologist, it's much easier for that oncologist to see what's going on with their patient while they're on hospice services within this integrated system," Yates said. "I think that'll benefit the patients as well as provide increased satisfaction for the providers."
The new care team will be based out of Mālama ʻOhana located at Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center and visit patients’ homes to provide care.
Yates said the at-home hospice care program is anticipated to open later this year.
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