As the first Blue Zone accredited employer in the state of Hawai‘i, Castle Medical Center is walking the walk—helping people eat well, move more and supporting them in their quest for health. Kathy Raethel worked as a registered nurse in Australia and on the mainland before landing at Castle, serving for more than a decade as vice president of patient care services before assuming her role as president and CEO in 2011—the first time in the center’s 53-year history that the post was held by a woman.
On outcome-based payment:
I love the move to outcome based. None of us like outcome measures that haven’t been vetted, but I think as long as we know and understand that there is science behind them, I’m very supportive of outcome measures. Castle has had some amazing results working towards the outcome.
On industry consolidation:
We’re seeing some really big entities emerging across the country, and they’re spanning the entire continuum of care. I think that reduces competition, and that isn’t always a good thing.
On the Affordable Care Act:
The Affordable Care Act hasn’t impacted Hawai‘i as much as other states. We had to prepay health insurance many years ago, and that really set us up very well. We’ve had really good coverage in the state, and so from my perspective, we haven’t seen a huge amount of impact. Where we have seen the impact is in efforts to reduce utilization. Our payers are trying to reduce their costs, whether its Medicare or our local payers here, and we’re working really hard with our patients, as well as our associates, to keep them healthy and out of the system for as long as possible. We’re trying to provide earlier access to care and plenty of access to wellness and preventive services to keep disease processes from emerging later on.
What employee wellness programs or workplace wellness practices are in place at Castle?
Where do I start! We have diabetic education and tobacco-cessation programs. We have a very active program for people who are trying to lose weight, and we do a lot of medical weight loss before considering surgery. We have lots of vegetarian cooking classes, and we’re trying to tailor some of those for folks who like a good plate lunch. We have a partnership with the Boys & Girls Club in Kailua where we teach them about healthy eating twice a month and participate in a lot of their healthy outreach programs.
