CHA plans for Hawaii med center in limbo

BY KAREN SHIDELER
The Wichita Eagle

Wichita-based CHA had hoped its Hawaii Medical Center would be out of Chapter 11 reorganization by now, but it still is waiting for a judge to look at all the plans and decide what to do, according to one of its officials.

Malik Idbeis, vice president for communication at CHA, said he'd not yet looked at a plan filed earlier this month by unsecured creditors, "but we have our plan going. I think it's a good plan."

The next hearing in the bankruptcy proceedings is scheduled for Nov. 23 in Honolulu.

CHA purchased the financially struggling Hawaii Medical Center, which has two campuses in Honolulu, in 2007. It filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in August 2008 after its relationship with a lender dissolved.

CHA was formerly known as Cardiovascular Hospitals of America. It is led by Wichita cardiovascular surgeon Badr Idbeis.

Malik Idbeis said CHA has five options, all of which involve divesting itself of Hawaii Medical Center's east campus.

"One is to sell it, another is to lease a portion of it, another is to give it back to St. Francis (Health System, from whom it was purchased) to cover part of the debt, another is to auction it, and the last option is to have the judge reassess the debt and how much it's actually worth."

He said selling or leasing the east campus probably would be CHA's preference.

The west campus is profitable, he said. At the east campus, "though it's not performing as well as we would like, there's significant improvements since we took it over."

"The problem with east is that it had a history of being a dialysis hospital, and it was hard to shake that image," he said. It's also an older facility, he said, and CHA believes it would do better in someone else's hands.

"We really want to be done with this," Idbeis said, referring to the Chapter 11 proceedings. "We thought it would be done a while ago, to be honest."

He said CHA was moving ahead with other projects, including a general acute care hospital that it just opened in Clarksville, Ind. Kentuckiana Medical Center has 48 beds and is expandable to 60 by finishing out a shelled-in wing, Idbeis said.

Reach Karen Shideler at 316-268-6674 or kshideler@wichitaeagle.com.