Survey Available Friday Aims to Improve Hawai‘i’s Healthcare, Accessibility

Help improve Hawai‘i’s healthcare systems, and have a chance to earn $100 gas card in the process.

Community First, together with half a dozen healthcare, government and social services partners, is launching an Access to Care health survey Friday, April 1, statewide.

It’s a project with a simple goal: to better understand what communities across Hawai‘i need to improve their health.

The results will go to healthcare professionals, social services providers and policymakers statewide to better improve care and accessibility across the state.

“Everyone’s voice matters,” said Randy Kurohara, executive director of Community First. “When you fill out the survey, it’s a chance to call out the needs you see and the gaps you want fixed — for yourself, your family and your community. It’s a chance to get the resources your neighborhood,
town, district or community needs.”

Community First is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit founded by the late KTA Stores founder Barry Taniguchi in 2014 to serve as a neutral forum for the community to come together, and as a catalyst for solutions to improve health and lower medical costs on Hawaiʻi Island based on the community good. T

The Access to Care healthcare assessment will combine data from resident surveys, input from healthcare and social service providers, and feedback from policymakers into a snapshot to better understand the terrain of the healthcare landscape across Hawai‘i.

Residents are encouraged to share their experience with the healthcare and social service systems via a simple, fast and anonymous survey. Residents can also take the survey at pop-up events at participating grocery stores and farmers markets across the islands throughout the month of April.

Access to Care also looks at data from patients who are flown off-island for procedures in an effort to understand what services can be administered locally.

Importantly, Access to Care specifically seeks to connect with populations who have been underserved in the past, specifically those in rural areas, ALICE families (asset limited, income constrained, employed), and those who are limited English proficient. Hawaiʻi has the highest per capita rates of those persons in the nation.

Each week, $100 gas gift cards will be given out in a randomized drawing as a mahalo in recognition of survey participation.

Access the survey here.