Long-overdue renovations to the morgue at Hilo Benioff Medical Center are underway this week.
According to HBMC’s Hospital Administrator Kris Wilson, morgue repairs started Monday and should be completed by the end of the week.
“The estimated cost for repairing the morgue is $25,000, which covers equipment that is currently under-performing. However, the entire mechanical system will be evaluated as repairs are carried out,” Wilson told the Tribune-Herald earlier this week.
“For the days that our morgue is under repair, we will be using (Hawaii Police Department’s) temporary morgue in the interim,” added Ha Chi, HBMC’s director of safety and emergency management. “HPD and Hawaii County have been fully supportive of this effort, and the continued collaboration between HBMC and HPD allows us to finally make this renovation happen.”
State law designates the police chief of each county — with the exception of the City and County of Honolulu, which has a medical examiner — as the county coroner, with every other HPD officer a deputy coroner.
HBMC’s morgue was built in 1984, and because of population increases and the police’s function as coroner, its occupancy often was strained beyond its capacity of 16 bodies. HBMC more than a year ago requested that police remove by Sept. 1, 2024, what are referred to as “HPD bodies” from its morgue. Those are the bodies of individuals who died somewhere other than the hospital, or bodies in coroner’s inquest cases and in criminal investigations.
Police were unable to comply with that deadline and were granted grace by HBMC. The county — despite some vocal public opposition — earlier this year constructed a temporary morgue operated by police.
Referred to by police as a “temporary cold storage facility,” the temporary morgue was completed on April 30 on county property adjacent to the new police and fire dispatch center just off Mohouli Street in Hilo.
According to Tom Callis, spokesman for Mayor Kimo Alameda, the facility — comprised of two 40-foot refrigerated shipping containers on a concrete foundation with 10-foot-high acoustic fencing and gate — was brought in below the projected $2.3 million price tag. Each container can hold up to 40 bodies, with the second container essentially serving as a backup, if necessary.
”HPD transferred their decedents in early May 2025. Since then, collaboration between HPD and HBMC has been effective in properly transferring and storing the appropriate bodies at both locations,” Wilson said. “With the opening of the HPD temporary cold storage facility, we have successfully kept our morgue census below the 16-body capacity, resulting in reduced stress on our air-conditioning mechanical systems.”
According to HPD Assistant Chief Sherry Bird, the average monthly decedent count at the police facility is 19 bodies. Bodies remains at the facility for an average of about two weeks before being claimed either by local mortuaries or relatives of the deceased, she said.
“Operations/supervision (at the cold storage facility) are being conducted by sworn police personnel with our Administrative Services Division,” Bird said. “Operations are projected to be conducted by a temporary contracted employee beginning in September 2025. We are currently working with the Department of Human Resources to create a permanent position which will be responsible for the operations at the facility.”
Bird said autopsies are being conducted at HBMC’s morgue and not at the police-run facility.
The County Council approved last year, and former mayor Mitch Roth signed into law, a $1.5 million appropriation for design and land acquisition for a permanent county morgue and authorized the issuance of general obligation bonds to fund the project.
“A search for a location for a new, permanent facility is being sought,” Bird said. “As such, we have not reached the design/planning phase, and there is no projected date for a new facility.”
County attorneys determined that the temporary morgue could be constructed without an environmental assessment, but a permanent facility would require a formal review in accordance with the Hawaii Environmental Policy Act.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
