Wilcox Health
Wilcox Health is part of Hawaii Pacific Health's network. One of Kauaʻi island's two hospitals, Wilcox Memorial Hospital provides Kauaʻi residents with an imaging center, emergency room, and surgical center.
History
George Norton Wilcox and Dora Isenberg were among the first to envision a community hospital with a staff open to all eligible physicians on Kauaʻi. This was achieved on November 1, 1938, with the official dedication of a T-shaped two-story building on 17 acres (69,000 m2) of land donated by the Lihue Plantation. It was built at a cost of $200,000. More than 1,000 Kauaʻi residents attended the ceremony and 15 days later the new 86-bed hospital accepted its first patients.
Periodic expansion programs continued over the years. The first expansion took place from 1955 to 1958 with the addition of a kitchen, an obstetrical wing, medical library, conference room and additional space for laboratory and X-ray departments. Another milestone was reached in 1966 with the advent of the Outpatient Department built adjacent to the main hospital. Plantation dispensaries were phased out at this time and the eastside physicians began practice in the modern and attractive facilities later forming the Kauai Medical Group Inc.
The third expansion was completed in August 1971 and resulted in the present $4.2 million Acute Patient Care Tower and Special Diagnostic and Treatment Facility. The air-conditioned addition was the culmination of four years of planning and research. A new laboratory and physical therapy building opened in 1977.
Since then, remodeling and renovation has been ongoing to accommodate the hospital's many new services and programs, which includes an Intensive Care Unit, Coronary Care Unit and a CT and MRI facility in the Imaging Department, which was renovated and expanded to include more exam space and updated equipment. In 2005, the department was named the Wilcox Family Imaging Center for the Wilcox Family on Kauaʻi .
Tiger Shark Attack
The Wilcox Health hospital is the hospital that treated Bethany Hamilton after losing her arm to a 14 foot tiger shark in the north shore of Kauai, Hawaii