Castle Earns ‘Excellence’ For Staff, Care

Alana Folen
Wednesday - December 24, 2008
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Kamoana Ross (far left, in green) and classmates listen as NASA astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams talks with the Kaneohe Elementary first-graders about her time in space as a flight engineer at the International Space Station. Williams has walked in space four times, a former record among rocket women. Photo by Leah Ball, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Castle Medical Center recently won the prestigious `Oihana Maika`i (Endeavors of Excellence) Purple Lei Award for organizational performance from the Hawaii Award of Excellence program.

Windward Oahu’s only major hospital received the award following a survey conducted last fall. It is the top award given by HAE and the initial step toward three possible levels of excellence. The last hospital so recognized was Kaiser Permanente in 1996.

“It serves to remind us what a great work force we have. There is such passion and a great spirit at Castle,“said president and CEO Kevin Roberts.“To see this recognition from an agency is overwhelming. The level of performance required is not trivial.”


Castle Medical Center CEO Kevin A. Roberts (standing) and director of medical/surgical services/nursing resources Robin Pacson show off a recently acquired reclining chair for joint replacement patients. Photo courtesy of Castle Medical Center.

To qualify, Castle had to submit a 50-page internal audit showing its commitment to leadership, strategic planning, patient focus, information handling, employee engagement, process management and results. Once the audit was accepted, HAE sent seven surveyors to the hospital for two days to talk to the staff, examine data and policies, etc.

“We have excellent doctors and nurses,“Roberts added,“and a great support staff. They come in every day ready to care for the community and share God’s love - that’s our mission here at Castle. We are a faith-based organization. The spirit of God is ever-present in the hospital, and it blesses the doctors, our entire staff and our patients.”

HAE cited key ways Castle stood out, such as enabling patient-focused excellence through processes that develop an understanding of patients’ needs; creating a clear focus on care to community members, consistent with its faith-based origins, through its mission, vision and values; and identifying workforce and leader learning and development needs through multiple methods, and addressing these needs through education and in-service training, supported by an online education system.

“We’re on the right journey,” Roberts said. “It validates the work we’re doing and gives us advice on what we can do better. It’s a great benchmark on the journey toward excellence. We want to make sure that Windward Oahu is receiving high-class care.”


The HAE program is administered through the American Society for Quality, Hawaii Section and based on the Malcolm Bridge National Quality Award offered by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

It is designed to provide organizations with the opportunity to systematically improve performance and capabilities to achieve world-class standards.

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