Maui News Now wanted my comment regarding the CEO's exit. Here's what I gave them:
CEO Michael Rembis' failed leadership and forced departure from Maui Health can be best described as "better late than never". The damage he has inflicted to healthcare in our community will take decades to repair. The Kaiser Foundation's five-year experiment and attempt to improve their profitability using Maui County's public hospital, under Rembis' leadership, has been a dismal failure, at great expense to the health of our citizens.
The thousands in our community who raised their voices to bring about this necessary change are to be applauded, yet a new figurehead does not eradicate the systemic issues plaguing healthcare and our hospital. The Kaiser Foundation's shortsighted profit-driven motives and ambitions to run public hospitals nationwide directly undermines their commitment to our community, quality of care delivered, and has devastated local physician and staff morale. The mass exodus of specialist physicians and surgeons have further eroded access to critically needed healthcare expertise. Many of these Maui-based, community-oriented, physician specialists have been alienated, displaced and even fired, unethically and unlawfully, warranting investigation and rectification.
This is one small step, one small victory, but for the health of our ohanas, kupunas, keikis and Maui Nui community, our work is not done and the struggle continues. There's no time for celebration- just solemnful prayer and more diligence from our community in vetting and keeping a close eye on who the next CEO will be and how Kaiser Foundation will rectify the damage it has done to our healthcare community by making sure our leaders and everyone in our community will hold them accountable to meaningfully invest in us, in our hospital and in our greater community or ask them to get out and let another organization, one that is intent on truly delivering the healthcare our community deserves, run this only hospital in Maui, one of the busiest hospitals in the state of Hawaii.