[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 136 (Friday, September 27, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S11567]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      A TRIBUTE TO GAIL WALKER, RN

 Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to an 
outstanding American health care hero. Ms. Gail Walker is a registered 
nurse and the executive director of the Hamakua Health Center in 
Honokaa, HI. She was recently honored by the Robert Wood Johnson 
Community Health Leadership Program for her outstanding commitment to 
providing residents of the Hamakua area with continuing access to 
health care. She was 1 of 10 health care heroes selected from a 
national pool of 720 candidates and the recipient of a $100,000 award 
for her community cause. This is truly an outstanding life-time 
achievement.
  Ms. Walker was born in Honokaa, HI and raised on a cattle ranch in 
Kukaiau, a community just east of Honokaa, where her father worked as a 
cowboy and mechanic. Her mother is a retired nurse. Leaving her native 
home for a formal nursing education and several years of work 
experience, she returned to excel in the health care industry on Oahu. 
In 1989 she returned to her home to take the position of director of 
nursing at the Hamakua Medical Center. In 1991, she became the 
executive director of that health center, the only medical clinic in 
the district.
  Ms. Walker quickly reorganized this clinic, instituting an 
appointment process, thus expediting medical care to the beneficiaries. 
In 1992, disaster struck the area when the Hamakua Sugar Co. filed for 
bankruptcy. Her friends and neighbors were without jobs and their 
families without support. Without the innovation, dedication, energy, 
and personal sacrifice of Ms. Walker these people would have lost not 
only their security, but their health care as well.
  Ms. Walker organized a task force of local residents, politicians, 
and department of health representatives. Financing the clinic's 
operation through her own funds, she had to manage the health care of a 
community with one tenth of her normal budget. Over the next 2 years, 
Ms. Walker engineered support initiatives with the insurance companies, 
local banks, local private donors, and the State Legislature. This 
resulted in the restoration of the health care system, a life line for 
the 7,500 residents of this 900-square-mile poverty-stricken area.
  In 1995 the State of Hawaii built a 7,000-square foot rural health 
clinic with a staff of 32 dedicated physicians, nurses, and support 
personnel in Honokaa. This new facility provides an expanded array of 
medical and social services never seen before in this rural, plantation 
community. These services include primary care, mental health, disease 
prevention, an indigent medication program, a nurse certification 
training program, and a School-to-Work Nurse's Aide Training Program 
for high school juniors. Ms. Walker will use funds from this award to 
establish a new urgent care program thus expanding the health care 
services in the community even further.
  It is hard to overstate the benefits these services provide the 
community of Honokaa, HI. Ms. Walker's ability to overcome enormous 
obstacles to provide modern health care in her native community attests 
to her strength of character, her compassion, and vision. I want to 
personally and publicly acknowledge my sincere appreciation to Ms. 
Walker for her dedicated years of exemplary leadership and service to 
her community and to bid her a heartfelt mahalo.

                          ____________________