IHS, THE QUEEN’S MEDICAL CENTER AND HOMEAID HAWAI‘I ANNOUNCES GRAND OPENING OF TUTU BERT’S HOUSE
Public-Private partnerships will provide medically frail homeless discharged from The Queen’s Medical Center with a safety net for short-term homecare and housing support.
News Release from IHS, March 31, 2016
HONOLULU – The Institute for Human Services (IHS) in partnership with The Queen’s Medical Center and HomeAid Hawai‘i announced today the grand opening of Tutu Bert’s house – a medical respite home that will provide short-term stabilization to homeless clients discharged from the hospital who are too ill to recuperate on the streets or at a shelter but are no longer in need of in-patient hospitalization. The house was dedicated in honor of IHS’ founder, Father Claude DuTeil’s wife – Roberta (Bert) DuTeil.
Tutu Bert’s house is a 3,816 square-foot, 2-story, 7-bedroom, 3-bathroom residential home recently renovated in partnership with HomeAid Hawai‘i. Three local-builder captains from Alexander & Baldwin, Castle & Cooke and Stanford Carr Development brought a $150,000 valued renovation and labor cost down to $20,000 and incurred that cost as a donation to IHS. HomeAid Hawai‘i Executive Director, Nani Medeiros stated “the building industry’s response and willingness to address homelessness not only saves IHS money to renovate the home; it allows them to dedicate their limited resources to provide program services, which is needed most.”
IHS Executive Director, Connie Mitchell stated “To meet a growing demand and need in our community, we have been in discussions for a year to design a way for homeless individuals discharged from the hospital to receive intensive case management, homecare and housing support services to end their homelessness and avoid re-hospitalization.” Through its Aloha United Way funded crisis stabilization program, IHS has seen a continued increase in hospital referrals over the past 4-years; from 434 in 2012 to as high as 735 in 2014 and 639 in 2015. Mitchell added that “a challenge we face is that many clients are in need of follow-up homecare that is not easy to accommodate in an emergency shelter which is often too stimulating and crowded. Tutu Bert’s house affords us another way to meet the specialized needs of a segment of the homeless community.”
The Queen’s Medical Center, a partner of IHS since its inception in 1978, gratefully supported the idea and is funding 8-medical respite beds. IHS anticipates an average length of stay of 6-weeks before transitioning into more permanent and stable housing situations. The goal is to serve at minimum 60 individuals per year. The Queen’s Medical Center Vice President, Karen Schultz stated “Helping people return to the community and reducing healthcare costs is the right thing to do. When patients no longer require in-patient level of care, it is prudent to transfer them to an appropriate next level of care. There are times when no options are available. Tutu Bert’s house is truly an innovative project and partnership that helps to provide the right care in the right setting. IHS, HomeAid Hawai‘i, Alexander & Baldwin, Castle & Cooke and Stanford Carr Development, and The Queen’s Medical Center partnered to make this house come to life within a year of conception.” Schultz added that “by providing homeless patients with a space to recover, we are in return providing a critical service to our community by saving money that would otherwise be spent on extended hospital treatment or emergency room visits.” IHS conservatively expects this effort will save taxpayers at minimum $2.68M per year from unnecessary healthcare costs.
Tutu Bert’s house officially opened its doors to its first client on March 3,, 2016. The house is currently at capacity with 8-clients in process of transitioning into stable housing. IHS continues to seek funds to recover some of the organization’s investment in developing the home.
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About IHS, The Institute for Human Services, Inc.: IHS, The Institute for Human Services, Inc., a 501 (c)(3) private non-profit organization, is Hawaii’s oldest, largest and most comprehensive human services agency exclusively focused on ending and preventing homelessness on Oahu. Services include emergency shelter, daily meal programs, housing, employment, healthcare, case management, children’s enrichment, and homeless outreach. IHS is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). For more information visit: www.ihshawaii.org
About The Queen’s Medical Center: The Queen’s Medical Center, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation established in 1859 by Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV, is an acute care medical facility accredited by The Joint Commission. The facility is licensed for 505 acute beds and 28 sub-acute beds and serves as the major tertiary and quaternary referral center for cancer, cardiovascular disease, neuroscience, orthopedics, surgery, emergency medicine and behavioral health medicine. It is the state’s designated trauma center verified as Level 2 by the American College of Surgeons. It has the only organ transplantation program in Hawaii. Queen’s is a major teaching hospital, serving as a clinical training site for the residency programs sponsored by the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii. Queen’s is the only hospital in Hawaii to achieve Magnet® status – the highest institutional honor for hospital excellence – from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The Queen’s Medical Center has over 4,500 employees and over 1,200 physicians on its Medical Staff.
About HomeAid Hawaii: HomeAid Hawai‘i is a chapter of HomeAid America, a leading national non-profit provider of housing for homeless families and individuals founded in Southern California in 1989. Through the generosity of builders, their trades and their suppliers, HomeAid chapters have completed over 400 housing projects nationwide at a value of more than $200 million, of which nearly 50 percent has been donated by the building industry. HomeAid Hawaii is a partnership with the BIA-Hawaii and our local development and building industry. HomeAid Hawaii started in July 2015. For more information about HomeAid Hawai‘i, visit www.homeaidhawaii.org.