Featured photo: Dr. Teresa Schiff, UHP Family Medicine physician, examines the breathing of a patient with her stethoscope. Vina Cristobal photo.
Written by Marybeth Kotrodimos
Photo by Vina Cristobal
Well, it’s happened.
University Health Partners (UHP)’s Family Medicine clinic has completed the move from the Physicians Center at Mililani to their new home which is conveniently nestled at Pali Momi Outpatient Center in Aiea, a move that has been a long time coming.\u00a0 The dedicated leadership and staff of Family Medicine slogged through the hard work of searching, identifying, building, complying, drawing up contracts, organizing, planning, packing, and directing, during this time when a lockdown kept most of us at home.\u00a0 And all the while, they cared for their patients and even accepted some new ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was no small feat.\u00a0 Yet everyone involved seems to agree with Dr. Robert Thomas Carlisle, one of the two new physicians who have just joined UHP in our Family Medicine clinic. The move and transition \u201cwent phenomenally well.\u00a0 It could not have run more smoothly,\u201d he said, giving all credit to those people at his new UHP Family Medicine ohana, who, he added, \u201chad a well-designed plan.\u201d\u00a0 He called them \u201cinspiring to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Family Medicine Department Chair, Dr. Allen \u201cChip\u201d Hixon, agrees that the move to Pali Momi from The Physician\u2019s Center at Mililani \u201cwas kind of uneventful. We did so much planning. It went very smoothly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Hixon is quick to credit the \u201cremarkable staff\u201d in Family Medicine for making this move such a success, while specifically giving credit to the clinic\u2019s Business Director, Leah Taylor, for so skillfully planning and executing the move. [See the article on Leah Taylor in this issue.] It helped, he said, that Hawaii Pacific Health\u2019s architect and project manager \u201cwere wonderful to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The goal, Dr. Hixon said, was to create \u201ca way to have the best family medicine curriculum\u201d for the residents while addressing the myriad needs of the patients we care for. They worked hard on design, he said, making sure they \u201cused the space effectively for patient flow.\u201d They also are aiming to create a \u201cteam-based clinic\u201d with an ambulatory pharmacist, clinical psychologist, \u201cand all those necessary services\u201d along with family medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though it took a lot of time and hard work, the move to Pali Momi gave Family Medicine\u2019s Clinical Operations Manager, Desiree Navarro, a chance \u201cto reflect a little bit.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Desiree said that helping with the packing up of the clinic at Miliani afforded her “a little trip down memory lane” as she went through some of things they had stored there during the 20 years she has been with the clinic. “It was nice to go back and say, “Hey, I remember this!” Overall, she agreed with Dr. Hixon and Dr. Carlisle that the move and transition have been very smooth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A high priority for the Family Medicine Clinic was that their patients continue to receive care throughout the move. And they did. The clinic not only continued to see their established patients, but throughout this move and transition, took on some new patients too. \u201cNot losing any communication with patients, partners, vendors \u2013 this was a very important part to me,\u201d Desiree said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Hixon shared an interesting bit of information about the history of the site of the new clinic:\u00a0 Years back, the site of Pali Momi was a sugar plantation, and during the late 1930s and early 1940s, Dr. Howard Liljistrand was the plantation\u2019s doctor in the healthcare facility maintained there for the workers.\u00a0 When the plantation closed abruptly, the workers were suddenly left without employment and healthcare.\u00a0 Dr. Liljestrand bought the hospital from the sugar company so he could continue to care for his patients, the former plantation workers.\u00a0 When he retired, he was able to sell the land to the people who developed a hospital there which would become Pali Momi Medical Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo our new clinic,\u201d Dr. Hixon said, \u201cis on the same space, the same block, the same geography as this very early plantation primary care doctor that was working there in the late 30s and 40s. I think there is a historical legacy there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The story of Dr. Liljistrand is one of a provider who is dedicated to the well-being of his patients. It is wholly fitting that UHP\u2019s Family Medicine doctors are practicing medicine on the very spot where he did. Talking with the clinic\u2019s doctors and staff, it is abundantly clear that the quality of the relationships they maintain with their patients is central to their approach to treatment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFamily Medicine is based on relationships over time,\u201d Dr. Hixon said. \u201cThis is an idea that may have gotten lost in our current busy society, that may seem quaint and old-fashioned, but we\u2019re also providing the latest evidence-based care and prevention, following the latest guidelines and services, so it is a combination of past, present, and future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Family medicine, he says, \u201cis not organ-system based, as many of the medical specialties are. For us, it starts with the person, with understanding the person \u2013 their life and their needs. The acute, chronic, and preventive care builds from there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In their relationships with specialist physicians, Dr. Hixon compares family medicine doctors to quarterbacks or point guards. \u201cIf we to need to pass the ball, surely we do. Healthcare is a team sport.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Desiree\u2019s comments echoed Dr. Hixon\u2019s emphasis on establishing relationships with their patients. \u201cWe build very good relationships with our patients,\u201d she added. \u201cThey understand our program and they love it! They actually love being a part of this \u2013 that they can help teach our residents. I have heard it from them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said she encourages her staff to \u201cfind appreciation for working at a physician\u2019s center and under UHP, for being able to provide education and provide care to patients. That is the message I bring to my staff,\u201d she said. \u201cTo bring the positive, to learn from the negative. Grow with the changes. Our mission is to serve the health needs of the community, now and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
July 2, 2020 — One small step for man, one giant leap for UHP Family Medicine, who moved to the Pali Momi Outpatient Center on June 15 after two decades in Mililani. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":13533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/uhphawaii.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/IMG_2791-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13518"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13534,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13518\/revisions\/13534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}