Adventist Health Castle | Windward Health | Winter 2020

Our clinic services are expanding! BY MELE POCHEREVA IT HAS BEEN NEARLY FIVE YEARS since Adventist Health Castle launched an initiative to make primary care more accessible to Windward communities, in response to findings of a statewide health needs assessment conducted by the Healthcare Association of Hawai‘i and its member hospitals. Since then, that initiative has resulted in five new clinics in L ā ‘ie, Kaneohe and Kailua, and the successful recruitment of new primary care providers at these locations. Many of these providers are accepting new patients and accept most insurance plans, including Quest and Medicare. Meeting people’s needs Patient needs also are a driving factor in efforts to expand specialist services within the clinics, according to Derek Dickard, director of the Castle Physician Network. “At Castle we conduct an annual needs assessment of the community to help identify what specialties are needed,” Derek explains. “We want to make sure that we are offering the services our patients deserve. We look at the population that we serve, how much demand there is for a specific type of specialist and how many providers we have. If there is more demand than available providers, we make every effort to recruit appropriate specialists to the Windward side.” Specialist services are especially appreciated at Castle Health Clinic of L ā ‘ie, whose patients otherwise would have to travel a considerable distance for specialist care. The L ā ‘ie clinic has offered OB-GYN services for several years, in partnership with Pali Women’s Group, whose L ā ‘ie providers include Allison Moore, MD; Tricia Song, MD; and Kara Berlin, FNP, a nurse practitioner. Now residents in this rural North Shore community also have access to specialists Jamala Munir, MD, cardiology; Brijit Reis, MD, pediatrics; Darin Wright, MD, ear, nose and throat; and, most recently, Christopher Lau, MD, orthopedic surgery. Castle introduces specialty clinics Complementing AH Castle’s five primary care clinics are two new specialty clinics in L ā ‘ie. They include an ear, nose and throat clinic and L ā ‘ie’s first dental clinic, which opened at the L ā ‘ie Shopping Center in December, offering family dentistry services. Until then, Lindsey Lau, DDS, was seeing patients at offices at the nearby Castle Health Clinic. In Kailua, the Outpatient Clinic in The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Medical Plaza & Wellness Center has become a multispecialty hub for Castle-affiliated providers in the areas of cardiology (Jamala Munir, MD), general and bariatric surgery (Steven Fowler, MD), and otolaryngology (Darin Wright, MD). “All of us at AH Castle are proud of the great care our patients receive through our integrated network of primary care providers and specialists,” Derek says. “With many of these providers accepting new patients, quality health care in Windward O‘ahu is more accessible than ever.” Meet Ryan Tenn, MSN, AGPCNP-BC After receiving an undergraduate degree in nursing from Hawai‘i Pacific University, Ryan Tenn, MSN, AGPCNP-BC, worked in a Honolulu hospital for five years. That experience led him to graduate school at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, where he earned a master’s degree with advanced training as a nurse practitioner. “I wanted to get into preventive care to keep people out of the hospital,” Ryan explains. “As a nurse practitioner in a clinic setting, I can manage patients’ care and keep them healthy.” As a certified adult nurse practitioner (ANP), Ryan sees patients who are 13 years and older. He is trained to provide routine care, prescribe medications and manage chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The L ā ‘ie clinic accepts walk-in patients, including urgent care, and Ryan leaves time in his schedule to accommodate them. Castle Primary Care Kailua Clinic I . . . . . . . . 263-5015 Kailua Clinic II . . . . . . . . 263-5018 Kaneohe Clinic . . . . . . . . 263-5019 Kaneohe Clinic II . . . . . . . 263-5020 La‘ie Rural Health Clinic . . . . 263-5017 “Life for me here in La‘ie post- transplant would have been very different and much more challenging if not for Ryan and the team just down the street.” —Linda Martin