Second Hospital to Be Built on Maui
Newport Hospital Corp has announced that they will be building a new hospital on West Maui. According to plans, the 14.9 acre medical facility will include a 25-bed critical access hospital, a 40-bed skilled nursing facility, a 24-hour emergency room, and a 30,000 sq ft medical office building. This will Maui's second hospital and will still transfer critical cases to Maui Memorial Medical Center, about an hour drive away. President of West Maui Hospital and Medical Center Foundation, Joseph Pluta, commented, "I've lived here in this community, and I've seen people die unnecessarily because of the isolation from emergency medical services. If you live here and your family was living here, you'd be scared to death because it's not safe." Pluta has been pushing for the building of a hospital in West Maui for the last 15 years. The center is expected to cost between $65 to $70 million to construct and will open in the middle of 2016.
