Hawai'i Kai care home to lose wheelchair patients
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Bureau
HAWAI'I KAI — Before the Lunalilo Home closed for renovations four years ago, patients who needed wheelchairs were welcome.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
When it reopens, probably by the end of this month, a new Department of Health license will prohibit patients who need wheelchairs at the home for elderly Hawaiians.
Prospective volunteers meet at Lunalilo Home, whose new license doesn't permit wheelchair residents.
The situation is frustrating because a big chunk of the $4.5 million in renovation costs went into making the home more handicapped-accessible, said Keahi Allen, one of three trustees for the home.
"It's the same place; why do we need to work under new regulations?" said Allen. "It's like reinventing the wheel. We had patients in wheelchairs before."
For the past year, the home was ready to open but couldn't, pending Health Department licensing. That process is now complete.
Yesterday, during an open house for the community, residents got their first glimpse of the renovated home, which sits on five acres on the slopes of Koko Head Crater next to Kaiser High School.
The Lunalilo Home has been in the business of caring for elderly patients for 80 years.
When it closed temporarily in 1997, renovations were expected to take only nine months.
Had the home taken only a year to renovate, the state would have allowed it to relicense, said Dianne Okumura, Office of Health Care Assurance state licensing section supervisor.
What: The Lunalilo Home, a retirement home for Hawaiians, is named after King William Charles Lunalilo. Where: It is located off what is now called Lunalilo Home Road. History: Moved to Hawai'i Kai in 1927. Previously had been near Roosevelt High School.
But the work took four years, and the home had to apply for a new license.
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At a glance
"All Type II licenses (like the home has) need to meet institutional codes," Okumura said. "It all depends on the amount of renovations. We are checking to see what the home had been licensed for before."
The home's new license doesn't allow it to accept patients who use a wheelchair because the hallways do not meet the regulation eight-foot width, said Okumura. The home's hallways are five feet wide.
Should a resident become wheelchair-bound while in the home, Okumura said, the home is obligated to find another facility for the person.
"This doesn't make any sense at all," Allen said. "The more restrictions they put on us, the fewer clients we can take."
The state Department of Health, which licenses adult residential care homes, is investigating the particulars of the law and the home's renovation, said Okumura.
"We want our residents to come back home," said Allen. "The whole purpose of the renovations was to make the home more home-like, rather than institutional. It's very frustrating for us as trustees and staff. It must be terribly frustrating for the residents waiting to come back."
