“It’s been horrible, to put it lightly,” said Dr. Randi Taniguchi-Fu, describing unreliable air service.
She’s a primary care doctor and medical director at Molokai General Hospital and Outpatient Clinic.
“When you're relying on the airlines to get people to see these critical specialists, that's a lot of times life and death,” Tanigichi-Fu said.
“And with such unreliable airlines, it puts a lot of strain [and] pressure on — of course, the patient is affected the most, because they can't get adequate care — but as a provider, it's difficult to practice here.”
Mokulele is the only airline flying to Molokaʻi and the primary air service for Lāna’i residents. Community members say the issues have been ongoing for the past couple of years.
Taniguchi-Fu has about 1,000 adult patients, many of whom need to see multiple specialists.
“A lot of these specialists — an orthopedic doctor or a pulmonologist, or even nephrologist — they're booked out months, so [patients have] been waiting for this one appointment,” Taniguchi-Fu explained.
“And then Mokulele just decides that day they're going to cancel their 6:10 a.m. flight and put them on a 2:30 p.m. flight when their appointment on Oʻahu is 12 p.m. So they have to miss their appointment. And then now they're going to have to wait even longer to get rescheduled," she said.
A majority of her patients tell her they’ve had flights that are canceled, rescheduled or delayed.
Andrea Dudoit, a Moloka’i resident battling breast cancer, has missed chemotherapy treatments on Oʻahu twice because of delayed flights. In another instance, she was trying to get home after being hospitalized following treatment.
“I had a very bad reaction that landed me in the hospital,” Dudoit said. “And I was checking in, and then I got a text that my flight was over five hours delayed.”
She said she's lucky to have family to stay with when that happens.
“I think at this point, a lot of people just expect delays and cancellations,” Dudoit said.
“Because that's just the new norm, unfortunately. But I was in no shape to hang out at the airport for that amount of time, because I was still recovering from being at the hospital. There's no way I could have done that. So I called a family member, very last minute, and I stayed the night.”
Frequent delays mean many patients are often forced to fly out the day before their appointment, causing many to have to pay out of pocket for a hotel.
“For me, I fly down the day before,” Dudoit said. “I don't take chances anymore when it comes to my cancer care.”
Taniguchi-Fu said her patients have learned the hard way.
“They've been burned so many times that they know they have to fly the day before, which is ridiculous,” she said.
“So now they booked for the day before, and they have to pay for a hotel room, because that's the only way they can guarantee that they can get this important procedure or important imaging study done, or this important appointment for a specialist that they've been waiting months for. And that's a lot of money. And majority of my patients don't have that.”
Valerie Janikowski, a registered nurse who works at Lāna’i Kināʻole, said Lana’i residents face similar challenges.
“I know for a fact that there are people that have delayed life-impacting treatments, and testing and specialty visits, because the transportation to and from those providers is unreliable,” Janikowski said.
Meanwhile, Mokulele’s Chief of Staff Keith Sisson said reliability has improved in the past year, particularly recently.
“In the past few months, we have run a much-improved operation for the people of Molokaʻi,” Sisson said. “In the last two months, we are looking at a 96% completion rate.”
But Molokaʻi's Rep. Mahina Poepoe still sees a huge need.
“Ever since getting elected and even before, we knew that we were facing what I feel like can only be described as a crisis in reliable air transportation, to and from Oʻahu or Maui for all of our residents on Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi,” she explained.
She proposed a bill, HB2544, moving through the state Legislature to establish a charter program through the Department of Health for non-emergency medical flights for Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi residents.
“That's really what motivated me, is just knowing that this problem has existed and is getting worse and wanting to try to alleviate at least our most urgent need while we work on the long-term solution for general air transportation reliability,” Poepoe said.
Tune in to part two of this story, where HPR's Catherine Cluett Pactol shares more potential solutions to inter-island transportation and health care.
