Hawaii State Hospital is over licensed capacity, with patients housed in conference and therapy rooms
Civil Beat reported that Hawaii State Hospital's original license covers 297 patients but that it was holding 325, with temporary authorization up to 350 across the old buildings and the new 144-bed facility. Staff said some patients were being housed in recreation therapy, conference, grooming and sensory rooms. Admissions rose from 229 to 333 in fiscal 2022 while discharges were 275, and 185 of the admissions, about 56 percent, were court commitments after felony charges.
The piece followed the November 2023 fatal stabbing of a nurse by a patient and quoted the administrator and the governor acknowledging the pressure. It concluded the hospital had evolved into a forensic facility because courts commit more people than can be discharged.
The story ties a safety incident to the same forensic admissions pressure Civil Beat had documented in 2017.
Source: Hawaii’s State-Run Psychiatric Hospital Is So Crowded Patients Sleep In Conference Rooms — Honolulu Civil Beat, by Kevin Dayton, Nick Grube
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