The planned opening of a new rural critical access hospital in West Maui will bring much needed vital services to the region. Developers expect to break ground on the West Maui Hospital & Medical Center in Lahaina in 2015, with doors opening in the summer of 2016. With the exception of cardiac surgery, West Maui Hospital & Medical Center will offer all types of services now provided only by Aloha Surgical Center in Kahului and Maui Memorial Medical Center in Wailuku, both of them more than 20 miles and at least 45 minutes from West Maui.
West Maui Hospital, with its proposed location on Kakaalaneo Drive near Kaanapali Coffee Farms, is only five minutes from Sands of Kahana. Its proximity will tilt the balance toward life in a life and death situation, when time matters most. Now emergency medical technicians on the West Side will have more than one choice of where to bring ambulance patients as they evaluate the severity and nature of the condition of each patient.
The 25-bed hospital will have three operating rooms and 24-hour emergency care as well as a 24-hour hour pharmacy. It will provide emergency room stabilization in case of accidents and offer surgery for hip and knee replacements, broken bones and appendectomies; baby deliveries; test procedures, including colonoscopies and endoscopies; and other routine medical tests. This is a much-needed hospital in West Maui and worth every penny of the projected $60 million cost.