Sign out
Kenneth S Hong, MD
I speak: English
My gender: Male
Referral required.
Where I practice
- Emergency service
- Urgent care services
- After-hours services
- Pharmacy services
- No emergency services
- No urgent care services
- No after-hours services
- No pharmacy services
About me
I am originally from South Korea. When my family and I immigrated to the United States, times were very different. We were in a country with an entirely different language, culture, and attitude. Ours was the only Asian family in my neighborhood. It was during those times that my parents taught me how to sharpen my skills of diligence, perseverance, and preparation.These skills helped me to attend medical school at the University of Illinois in Chicago, where I also did my internship in internal medicine and residency in gastroenterology.
About my practice
I appreciate being a gastroenterologist because it is such a fulfilling field in which to practice. The gastrointestinal tract is basic to life, yet eating means so much more. It is social, pleasurable, symbolic, and traditional. It can augment joy but can also amplify sorrow, echoing one’s emotional state. Abraham Lincoln has written, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Being a gastroenterologist has allowed me to hone this principle and apply it to the care of patients. It is a fascinating field because it combines variegated organs into one discipline, and it requires selecting the “right tool for the right job.”Melding endoscopic evaluation with a patient’s symptoms allows me to do things that may not have been thought possible in the past. Technology such as colonoscopy provides the ability to prevent and even treat early cancer, something many other fields of medicine cannot offer. We can not only screen for cancer, but we have the potential to also treat diseases at the same time, all without surgery. Kaiser Permanente’s integrated system of care and its electronic health record system have been a boon to making my tools sharper. The entire health record is available at the time of procedures and consultations. Labs, radiology results, as well as notes from a patient’s primary care physicians and other consultants, are easily accessible. This often provides a deeper understanding of an individual’s problems and allows us to potentially glean additional clues to a diagnosis or treatment from previously unrelated results or opinions. Presently, I am chief of the Department of Gastroenterology. I am a member of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, American Gastroenterological Association and Society of Gastrointestinal Intervention. I have published in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and am board certified in gastroenterology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. I continue to keep up to date with advances in my field by reading journals from our professional societies as well as trying to attend conferences that include international leaders in my specialty. This way, I am able to garner insight from advances beyond the United States.
How I thrive
I enjoy spending time with my family, no matter how thrilling or mundane the activity. Drawing and the visual arts have been hobbies of mine since I was young, and I hope to continue these for many years to come. I’m also a kid at heart and enjoy tinkering with computers, playing video games, and dreaming of someday inventing the “next big thing.”
My office
Referral requirements
You need a referral to see this provider.Languages spoken by medical staff
Help is available in your language. Learn more.
Medical groups & plans
Hawaii Permanente Medical Group
- HMO
- Medicaid (QUEST)
- Senior Advantage
Contact information
- 24-hour prescription refill
- 808-643-7979
- 24/7 Advice
- 1-833-833-3333 (toll free)
- Appointment cancellations
- 1-833-833-3333 (toll free)
- Behavioral Health Services
- 808-432-7600
- Information and appointments
- 1-833-833-3333 (toll free)
- Member Services
- 1-800-966-5955 (toll free)
- Pharmacy
- 808-643-7979
My training, certifications & licensing
Medical school
University of Illinois at ChicagoBoard certification
Gastroenterology
American Board of Internal MedicineTo verify board certification for an individual practitioner, please visit the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Medical Association, or the American Osteopathic Association websites.
Medical training
Fellowship
Gastroenterology
University of Illinois at ChicagoInternship
Internal Medicine
University of Illinois at ChicagoResidency
Gastroenterology
University of Illinois at ChicagoJoined Permanente Medical Group
2008Provider ID
9563My hospitals
I have admitting privileges at the following hospitals:
To find:
- a provider’s office hours, search our facility directory
- providers in your plan or accepting new patients, call 1-800-966-5955 (toll free) or 711 (TTY for the hearing/speech impaired)
The information in this online directory is updated at least monthly. The availability of physicians, hospitals, providers, and services may change. To report an error, please call 1-800-966-5955 or email us.
Medicare Members: To request a hard copy of Kaiser Permanente’s provider directory, please call our Member Services department at 1-800-805-2739, seven days a week, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Kaiser Permanente will mail a hard copy of the provider directory to you within three (3) business days of your request. Kaiser Permanente may ask whether your request for a hard copy is a one-time request or if you are requesting to receive the provider directory in hard copy permanently.
If you request it, your request for hard copies of the provider directory remains until you leave Kaiser Permanente or request that hard copies be discontinued.
Kaiser Permanente works together with participating providers to ensure all cultural competence obligations are met. We are dedicated to ensuring that services are provided in a culturally competent manner to all members, including those with limited English proficiency and reading skills; as well as those with diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities
Kaiser Permanente is committed to providing accessible facilities, services, and programs for all members, visitors and individuals with disabilities. In compliance with federal and state laws that prohibit discrimination based on disability, Kaiser Permanente provides:
- accessible exam rooms and medical equipment;
- free auxiliary aids and services to ensure effective communication with individuals with hearing, vision, cognitive, and/or communication-related disabilities, including qualified sign language interpreter services and informational materials in alternative formats (large print, audio tape/CDs, accessible PDFs or Microsoft Word documents, electronic texts/disks/CD-ROMS, and Braille); and
- access to service animals, except where the animal poses a significant health or safety risk(s) to others.
For more information about access to a specific facility or provider, or if you believe that Kaiser Permanente has failed to provide appropriate access or services or otherwise discriminated on the basis of a disability, please contact Member Services toll-free 1-800-966-5955 or TTY 711, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. or Saturday, 8 a.m. – noon. You may also contact or file a grievance with the Kaiser Permanente Civil Rights Coordinator in person, by mail, fax or email at: 711 Kapiolani Blvd, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813, civil-rights-coordinator@kp.org, or toll-free 1-800-966-5955, TTY 711.
The availability and use of the Kaiser Permanente grievance procedure does not prevent a person from filing a complaint of discrimination on the basis of disability with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights or the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission.
Kaiser Permanente uses the same quality, member experience, or cost-related measures to select practitioners and facilities in Marketplace Silver-tier plans as it does for all other Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (KFHP) products and lines of business and uses the same geographic distribution consideration to select hospitals in Marketplace plans as it does for all other Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (KFHP) products and lines of business. The measures may include, but are not limited to, HEDIS/CAHPS performance, member/patient complaints, patient safety scores, hospital quality measures, and geographic need. Members enrolled in KFHP Marketplace plans have access to all professional, institutional and ancillary health care providers who participate in KFHP plans' contracted provider network, in accordance with the terms of the members' KFHP plan of coverage. All Kaiser Permanente Medical Group physicians and network physicians are subject to the same quality review processes and certifications.
A narrow network is defined as a tailored, tiered or high-performance network that has 80 percent or less overlap with a health plan’s broadest network offered to a member in any type of plan offered by that health plan. Kaiser Permanente does not have a narrow network with respect to its Marketplace plans. Members enrolled in Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (KFHP) Marketplace plans have access to the same provider networks as members enrolled in all other KFHP plans.
Information about a practitioner is provided to us by the practitioner or is obtained as part of the credentialing process. If you would like more current information on a practitioner's license, call either the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Consumer Resource Center at (808) 587-3295 or visit their website, or call the Kaiser Permanente Customer Service Center at (808) 432-5955 (Oahu) or 1-800-966-5955 (toll free, neighbor islands). For the deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired, call 1-800-966-5955 or 711 (TTY).
This page was last updated on: 12/03/2024