Liliha Kapuna Village

St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii is poised to reopen in the next few months a skilled-nursing facility at its former hospital in Liliha, which closed more than two years ago.

The 119-bed facility will be the cornerstone of an envisioned long-term care campus, estimated to cost roughly $80 million over the next five years.

Gradually, St. Francis is planning to add more services to what it has dubbed the Liliha Kupuna Village, including a senior community center, assisted living, adult day care and independent-living townhomes — all services that are needed in the growing senior community, said Jerry Correa, St. Francis' president and chief executive officer.

"We're repositioning this campus to what is the right fit for the campus in the community," Correa said. "We're targeting the population post-acute care. We met with caregivers, geriatricians and patients and clients in the neighborhood. We said, 'This is what we're going to build. ... What do you think?' Overwhelmingly what we got was, 'When? Hurry up.'"

St. Francis said it plans to place a senior community center next to a redeveloped courtyard to transform the aging campus into a welcoming neighborhoodlike town center where healthy seniors can have a social environment and then eventually transition to other services on campus. Services will focus on dementia, a growing disease among seniors, and also address respite services for caregivers.

One in 5 Hawaii residents will be 65 years or older by 2030, and 247,000 households have family caregivers, according to St. Francis' research.

"We're going to teach seniors about healthy living at the senior center. They can come to the campus when they're healthy and be familiar with the services on campus," he said. "We wanted to make sure they become familiar with the campus and have a place to go (when they're sick)."

The health care provider, which opened St. Francis hospital in Liliha in 1927, also hopes to include complementary services on campus, including a rejuvenation spa, bistro cafe and concierge services for seniors, as well as access to a number of geriatric specialists.

"We're open to partnerships, collaborating with organizations or providers that a lot of times, this is their core business," Correa said.

The company is already recruiting specialty providers. Hawaii Pacific Neuroscience, a multispecialty practice focusing on dementia, Alzheimer's disease, headaches and strokes, signed a contract with St. Francis this week to open an office on the 8-acre Liliha campus, which already has dialysis services, a cancer center, pharmacy, laboratory, radiology and endoscopy and about 30 private physician offices.

"As Hawaii ages, access and affordability of long-term care services become increasingly important," said AARP Hawaii spokesman Bruce Bottorff. "Most Hawaii residents tell us they want to stay in their homes for as long as possible, but when the preferred option of remaining independent at home is no longer practical, it can be daunting for families to find the living environment that best meets the needs of an aging loved one. We welcome the development of affordable options that deliver the high quality of care our seniors deserve."

Despite ambitious redevelopment plans, St. Francis is closing its inpatient hospice unit in Ewa and its more than 50-year-old home health programs on Oahu and Kauai because of financial pressures.

"(It) was more financially driven than anything; the model is just not there,"

Correa said, adding that the Catholic religious order is looking for service partners to complete the Liliha campus. "Medicare reimbursements for it was just not covering the cost of operations. We've got to make sure it's sustainable. That's what is going to set us apart."

The organization began reducing services when it exited the acute-care business in January 2007, selling the financially troubled St. Francis Medical Centers in Ewa and Liliha for $68 million to HMC LLC, then a for-profit joint venture between Hawaii Physician Group LLC and Kansas-based Cardiovascular Hospitals of America.

St. Francis, which provided the bulk of the financing for the sale and was HMC's largest creditor, regained control of the hospitals after a lengthy bankruptcy that led to the closure of the facilities in 2011 and 2012. The Queen's Health Systems acquired the Ewa hospital from St. Francis in December 2012 and reopened the facility May 20.

Correa hopes that St. Francis' future services will help alleviate a growing waitlist problem at Oahu's acute-care hospitals by offering long-term care options. Hawaii's healthcare providers are losing $62.7 million a year to care for patients who remain in a hospital even though they no longer need acute-care services, according to the Hawaii Health Information Corp.

"One of the values the Franciscans have is when the time is right you let go," said Correa, the first layman to hold the top post of St. Francis. "And when there's an opportunity or need, the sisters aren't afraid to dive into it."