Page 12 - MidWeek - Dec 22, 2021

12 MIDWEEK DECEMBER 22, 2021
(From right) Ryan Ashlock, president of Adventist Health Castle, leads a group of talented health care professionals at the medical center. They include Brandon Tobias, medical assistant, and Stephanie Tenoso, lead patient access representative.
The state of Adventist Health Castle has never been better, thanks in part to its recent acquisition of Urgent Care Hawai‘i, which allows the full-service
Currently, there are three active Urgent Care Hawai‘i locations: Kailua (660 Kai- lua Road), Pearl City (1245 Kuala St.) and Kapolei (890 Kamokila Blvd.). A fourth location in Waikīkī/Ala Moana (1860 Ala Moana Blvd.) is temporarily closed primarily because of the reduction in tourism. The state-of-the-art facilities are open to anyone (you do not need to be a Castle patient), walk-ins are welcome and almost all insurance types are accepted. Services of- fered include immediate infant, pediatric, adult and geriatric care; basic labo- ratory, X-ray and telehealth services; occupational med- icine and COVID-19 test-
ing. With the added urgent care centers, patients now have more options and typ- ically quicker access to care than at an emergency room.
cause of the variety of care that we have to be ready to provide, that’s not as true in an urgent care setting.
Imedical center to expand its reach in Hawai‘i.
n sickness and in health, “(One reason is) Castle does we’ re excited about having Adventist Health Cas- not have urgent care services, the Urgent Care Hawai‘i tle (formerly known so by acquiring Urgent Care team join Castle is it’s an
“We want to make sure our ED (emergency depart- ment) is kept available for those that are experiencing a more traumatic injury,” notes Ashlock, “and keep some of the things like colds, flu, sore throat, mi- nor scrapes and cuts, that are more appropriate to be in an urgent care environment, and frankly it’s more cost effective for a community member to be in an urgent care than it is to be in a hos- pital environment. As you might expect, a hospital is a little bit more expensive be-
“As we move into this world of population health and health care, we’ re all really focused on how do we reduce the total cost of care? We want to make sure patients are being cared for in the right setting and previously we didn’t have urgent care services, so we weren’t able to refer patients but now we do. It’s mutually beneficial because it’s more cost effective for us.”
as Castle Medical Center) Hawai‘i, we now can com- extremely innovative group.
has stood by the Windward community for nearly six decades. Now, the faith- based, nonprofit integrated health system is extending its care to other areas of the island with the acquisition of Urgent Care Hawai‘i.
plete the continuum of care by providing urgent care services. Secondly, we had a goal of expanding our ser- vices both here on the Wind- ward side and even beyond ... We are just really excited to be able to take the out- standing people and the care that we provide here at Castle to new communities for us.
They’ve done an outstand- ing job navigating through this pandemic and really keeping themselves rele- vant. We are glad to have them here to bring their innovation spirit into our broader organization and re- ally look at how we can im- prove and expand the urgent care services that they’ ve historically provided.”
Castle’s Rich History
“This is something we’re really excited about,” shares Ryan Ashlock, president of Adventist Health Castle.
Adventist Health Castle,
“Another reason why
SEE PAGE 17
STORY BY
YU SHING TING
PHOTO BY
LAWRENCE TABUDLO