Jan 14, 2021
HONOLULU (AP) A Hawaii island veterans home that suffered a coronavirus outbreak resulting in several patient deaths is under new management.
The Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo will be operated by the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation under the management of Administrator Kau’i Chartrand, Hawaii Public Radio reported Monday.
An August COVID-19 outbreak at Yukio Okutsu infected 35 staff and 71 residents, including 27 who died.
The state-owned health care organization took over the home in an agreement resulting in Utah-based Avalon Health Care relinquishing control of the facility, which the company had run since it opened in 2007.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gave the home a health inspection rating of one star out of five.
(AP) A Hawai’i island veterans home that suffered a coronavirus outbreak resulting in several patient deaths is under new management. Hawai’i Public Radio reported the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo will be operated by the Hawai’i Health Systems Corporation under the management of Administrator Kau’i Chartrand. An August COVID-19 outbreak at Yukio Okutsu infected 35 staff and 71 residents, including 27 who died. The state-owned health care organization took over the home in an agreement resulting in Utah-based Avalon Health Care relinquishing control of the facility, which the company ran since it opened in 2007. Avalon did not immediately respond Tuesday to an email seeking comment.
Hilo Veterans Home Under New Management
Kauʻi Chartrand is the new administrator for the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home. She spent the day Friday overseeing the administering of the first COVID-19 vaccines to residents and staff.
“I can’t tell you – staff were excited. We were delighted. You know this has been long awaited,” says Chartrand.
The Hilo nursing home became a hotspot for the coronavirus last August. A COVID-19 outbreak infected 35 staff and 71 residents, including 27 who lost their lives. It also led to the removal of Avalon Health Care, the Utah-based company that ran the home since it opened in 2007.
Melvin Tomita, 87, believed in doing the right thing and spent a life doing just that HNN Staff
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Melvin Tomita used to wear a hat that read “pono.”
It was a mantra that he brought to every aspect of his life, as a member of the military, a firefighter, and as a husband and a dad. “Pono, do the right thing,” said his youngest daughter, Roxsanne Ruff-Tomita.
“That’s my dad. That’s him.”
Tomita died in September after contracting COVID-19 at the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo. The 87-year-old Bronze Star recipient was one of more than two dozen at the facility who died of the virus.