Schatz announces $740,000 for Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children
Federal Health Care Funds Will Help Train and Keep Children’s Doctors in Hawai‘i
Honolulu, HI - Today, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D- Hawai‘i) announced $741,897 in federal health care funds for the Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women and Children. The federal money will help Kapi‘olani cover stipends and salaries for residents and faculty, overhead costs and other medical education costs. The funds come through the Department of Health and Human Services’ Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Payment Program.
“This investment will help Kapi‘olani provide the best training for its medical residents and quality health care for Hawai‘i’s children,” said Senator Brian Schatz. “This program also helps foster an educational environment that encourages future and practicing doctors to learn and stay in Hawai‘i.”
Earlier this year, Senator Schatz helped the Senate pass the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Support Reauthorization Act. The legislation would reauthorize the program for five years at $300 million a year.
Kapi‘olani Medical Center is Hawai‘i’s only children’s hospital and serves as the pediatric teaching hospital for the University of Hawai‘i’s John A. Burns School of Medicine. The Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Program was created in 1999 and passed Congress with bipartisan support. The program provides funding to 55 freestanding children’s hospitals across the United States, including Kapi‘olani, to support the training of pediatricians and other residents. These freestanding children’s hospitals train over 45 percent of general pediatricians, 51 percent of all pediatric specialists and the majority of pediatric researchers.
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