With a blessing ceremony today, Shriners Hospital for Children celebrated the opening of its new medical facility wing — part of $73 million in improvements being made to its campus on Punahou Street.

Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona, Shriners officials and hospital staff attended the private ceremony at the medical facility that kicked off at 11 a.m.
Construction on the medical facility started a year ago and cost about $60 million.
Work is still under way at the hospital to build or renovate parent housing, administration housing and meeting facilities.
Construction at the hospital is set to wrap up in May 2010.
Shriners Honolulu, which opened in 1923 in Liliha and moved to its present site in 1930, provides orthopedic surgical and rehabilitation care to children up to age 18 at no cost, regardless of parents’ ability to pay. The hospital sees about 600 new patients a year, about 80 percent of whom are from the Islands. The rest come from all over the Pacific, including from Guam and Micronesia.
The facility gets about $16 million in operating money from the Shriners endowment.
Shriners has committed $59 million toward building the new hospital, which will feature state-of-the-art equipment and recreation areas. The rest of the construction funds — about $14 million — are supposed to come from donations.
So far, Shriners has raised $10 million from businesses, foundations and the public and needs $4 million more — likely before the end of the year — to keep construction of the Punahou facility on track, said Ralph Semb, president and chief executive officer of the Shriners board of trustees.