Don’t delay expansion of State Hospital

When it comes to the slow-turning wheels of state government, a big shove to get things rolling must be applauded — especially when it’s a much-needed push in the right direction.

So it is with the long-delayed expansion of the outdated, overcrowded and troubled Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe.

Gov. David Ige is asking the state Legislature for $160.5 million to finally start the rebuilding, and state Health Director Virginia Pressler calls it her department’s “No. 1 priority” this year.

Legislators, too, agree the need is urgent, but — and here’s the big shove — are threatening to withhold funding unless the project gets going, and fast.

Despite the apparent conflict, all sides must keep sight of how aligned, not far apart, they are to see this project through. It can be done.

In his State of the State address Monday, Ige emphasized the need for a new forensic mental health facility on the Kaneohe campus.

“We must address the severe overcrowding as well as the safety of our state employees,” he said.

More than 10 years ago, the Health Department commissioned a master plan to revamp the campus, the only public psychiatric hospital in the state. But it was neither funded nor implemented — and over that time, the facility has seen an alarmingly sharp increase in the number of court-committed patients, as well as hundreds of reported assaults by patients against workers.

Security problems have been compounded by staff lapses — the most recent occurred last weekend, allowing a dangerous patient to escape into the community before being recaptured Tuesday in Waikiki.

That escape speaks as much to hospital staff’s lax attention to security as it does to the deficient facilities. The former must be addressed by firmer management: a tightening of internal procedures and disciplinary consequences for those involved. The latter problem — the one of facilities — should be tackled via the revamped master plan.

Unveiled last fall, the revised master plan was rightfully heralded for its focus on separating high-risk patients from the rest of the population, as well as for increasing the facility’s overall capacity.

This month, though, simmering frustration over the Health Department’s long timeframe boiled over, with House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke scolding Ige’s administration for its “ridiculous” schedule of seven or eight years to rebuild the hospital.

Lawmakers want the project shortened closer to three years — and we support that sense of urgency.

Of immediate concern is the symbolic first step: tear-down of the campus’s dilapidated Goddard Building, site for a new 144-bed facility. The Legislature allotted demolition funds two years ago — and Luke was justifiably miffed that the job still was not done. She threatened to withhold all of the $160 million for expansion unless the Goddard demolition is underway by mid-March, when state budget talks start gelling.

Luke makes an important point. Too often, crucial projects implode due to lack of urgency and indecision. All involved in this crucial expansion have an obligation to see that doesn’t happen here: the Health Department and the Department of Accounting and General Services, which is responsible for securing the building contracts, must work swiftly to ensure Goddard demolition in the next couple of months; and then, to solicit proposals for a design-build project that can be fast-tracked to completion in three to five years.

Public safety is paramount, so there is a strong community purpose to seeing the State Hospital’s overhaul succeed. Progress is wholly possible. But it will take all sides working expeditiously and in tandem to seize this prime opportunity, and bring a long-needed project to fruition, sooner rather than never.