New Hawaii state hospital’s designs focus on safety
HONOLULU — Officials behind plans for a new Hawaii State Hospital said the future facility will be more secure, safer for staff and better suited for patients with mental health issues.
Artist renderings for the new $140 million Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe, Oahu, were unveiled at a news conference earlier this week.
The four-story hospital will span over 170,000 square feet (15,793 square meters) and hold 144 beds.
The hospital is expected to open in 2021.
The new building will replace the Goddard building that was demolished in 2016 and bring Hawaii State Hospital’s total capacity up to 252.
The facility’s design will make it possible for one person to monitor an entire floor leaving hospital staff free to focus on their jobs, architects and designers said.
All doors can be managed by a single person working in a “control booth,” they said.
Other security features include a single entrance and exit at the front of the building for staff and visitors and a 16-foot (5-meter) “anti-climb fence” that curves inward will surround the rear of the building.
“This perimeter is very reliable so that nobody’s going to spend all their time thinking, ‘How do I get out of there?’” Joel Dvoskin said, a design consultant on the project.
In addition to the security features, Bill May, administrator for Hawaii State Hospital, said 17 policies and procedures are under review and staff have received new training in response to an incident last November where Randall Saito — who was committed to the hospital after being found not guilty by reason of insanity of a woman’s 1979 killing — escaped from hospital before he was found and apprehended in California.
Saito was indicted earlier this month.
The hospital has been taking proactive measures since the incident, May said.
Staff members have received training on “proper boundaries” with patients.
“What happened in November will not happen with this facility,” May said.
Hawaii representative accused of misusing campaign money
HONOLULU — A state congressional candidate is accused of misusing funds donated to his campaigns for the state House, including using campaign money for personal expenses.
State Rep. Kaniela Ing failed to report more than $28,000 in campaign donations and more than $87,000 in campaign expenditures since 2011, the state Campaign Spending Commission said Thursday.
The unreported spending included more than $2,000 in campaign money used to pay rent, about $1,000 used to pay legal fees and more than $200 used to pay Ing’s partner’s credit card bills, according to the commission.
“The (alleged violations) are very serious,” Kristin Izumi-Nitao said, executive director of the Campaign Spending Commission, whose staff subpoenaed bank records to make their case. “Unfortunately, we found many of his reports were irregular.”
Ing, a Democrat currently running in the 1st Congressional District of Hawaii, has apologized and said that any errors were unintentional.
He declined to address the allegations of personal use of his campaign money.
“I really would like to answer that question directly and get into these details and questions of each individual count but my counsel says that I should not,” he said.
The commission will further discuss the issue during its next meeting on Wednesday.