Queen’s West Celebrates 1-year Milestone May 20
The Queen’s Medical Center- West Oahu celebrates its one-year anniversary today (May 20), and staff and patients alike look forward to what the future holds for the medical facility.
“Overall, it has been a wonderful year, and we have felt so welcomed into this community,” said CEO Susan Murray. “In a very real way we are taking care of family, and that’s how we feel.”
Since its opening one year ago, QMC-West Oahu has seen a large influx of patients enter its doors, which speaks to the need the facility fills in the community.
In fact, the most common adjective patients and families use to describe QMCWest Oahu is “grateful.”
“They’re grateful to have health care available that’s convenient,” Murray continued. “And they’re grateful that it’s Queen’s.”
For Waianae patient Benjamin Hoff, QMCWest Oahu is heaven-sent.
“For us guys in Waianae, we had two major choices,” he said. “We either go all the way down to Queen’s in town or we go to Castle Medical Center (in Kailua). The people out on the West coast, we need a facility, a close facility like this, especially one that cares about people.”
Hoff’s first encounter with QMC-West Oahu was Sept. 3, 2014, when he was hospitalized for five days with an infection in his leg.
Apprehension set in, as Hoff saw his leg grow more agitated as time passed.
“I was really scared about what it could have been,” he admitted. Upon entering the ER, he undoubtedly was nervous, but the staff and doctors on duty that day made him feel immediately at ease.
“Right away the flags flew up that they went the extra mile,” he said. “I was not used to having that kind of attention shown to me in an ER before.”
Now, his infection is completely healed and Hoff is back on his feet again.
“I will never forget my experience at Queen’s West,” he said. “We can tell where the aloha is. We can feel when people care for us or when we’re just shuffled on the side.
“Already people on the West coast are calling it ‘our hospital.’”
Aside from providing quality patient care, QMCWest Oahu has been busy this past year. In order to better serve its community, it added a diabetes education center, which Murray described as a two-pronged approach.
“We want to make sure this community gets healthier,” she explained. “And we want to make sure the next generation doesn’t have a problem with diabetes and doesn’t need as much help with chronic diseases because we’ve been able to make a healthy impact.”
In addition, Murray and her staff also have found that there is a far lower percentage of women getting mammograms when they should.
“The other important part of being a community hospital is having screenings available,” she explained.
To combat that, Queen’s employs a surgeon who specializes in breast surgery for automatic reconstruction.
“We’re trying to look at the whole person and caring for all of their lives and the lives of their family,” Murray continued.
QMC-West Oahu also has made it a point to interact with the community in positive ways. For example, its monthly Fresh Market encourages the community to buy local and eat healthy.
This month’s Fresh Market runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 27 in the emergency department parking lot, featuring goods from Aloha Bakehouse, Aloha Golf Center, Bistro Blends, Lovan Taro Farm, Nani Kore, Natural Aloha, 0 Desserts, Sodexo, Sou’s Thai and Ulu’s Lemonade.
QMC-West Oahu is located at 91-2141 Fort Weaver Road in Ewa Beach.
Visit queenswestoahu.org online for more information.
