News Releases from Department of Health

Evidence shows that caring for moms during their pregnancy and for their keiki during their first few years of life, especially those with low incomes, helps improve the health of both the moms and their children, prevents child abuse and neglect, encourages positive parenting, promotes child development and enhances school-readiness. That’s why the federal government ...
Read More Hawaii Receives Million HHS Grant to Expand Home Visiting Program

In Hawaii, one person commits suicide every two days. In fact, data collected from 2009 to 2013 shows suicide was the most common cause of fatal injuries among Hawaii residents, accounting for over one-quarter of all fatal injuries. The Hawaii Department of Health is taking action to empower professionals and the general public to prevent ...
Read More Register Today for Prevent Suicide Conference on April 30, 2015

Hawaii youth who have experienced trauma and need mental health and other services but may have difficulty accessing  care from traditional sources now have an easier way to receive the help they need. Friends of Children’s Mental Health, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, provides another way for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division (CAMHD) of ...
Read More Hawaii Department of Health Establishes Friends of Children’s Mental Health; Kaiser Permanente Gives ,000 Grant to Support Programs

Hawaii has the highest percentage of top-rated long-term care facilities in the nation, according to the U.S. Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), despite the federal agency’s increased stringent standards and a recently revised rating system. According to CMS’s website Nursing Home Compare, 18 of Hawaii’s 46 nursing homes, or 39 percent, received five ...
Read More Hawaii: Best Nursing Homes in the Nation

As an advocate for the health of Hawaii’s people, the Hawaii State Department of Health is always seeking ways to improve the safe delivery of care. That is why the Department of Health strongly supports an administration bill currently in the legislature that seeks to expand the department’s authority to conduct thorough background checks on ...
Read More Stepping Up Protection for Hawaii Patients: Department of Health Supports Enhanced Background Checks

Hawaii residents can now track the real-time status of their online orders for birth certificates and marriage/civil union certificates. The Department of Health’s Office of Health Status Monitoring launched the improved online ordering and tracking system last week. The website address is https://vitrec.ehawaii.gov. “The Hawaii Department of Health issues nearly 300,000 certified copies of birth, ...
Read More New and Improved! Vital Records Online Ordering and Tracking System

Offering healthier food choices is good business. That’s the experience of blind vendors of the Choose Healthy Now program, a pilot project in six state and federal government vending sites on Oahu. Choose Healthy Now helps employees identify healthy, moderately healthy, or unhealthy snacks and drinks by labeling them with green, yellow and red stickers ...
Read More Curbing Obesity: Offering Healthy Snacks Makes Financial Sense

Hawaii residents and tourists alike may soon have a new, lower-cost and healthier way to travel while in Hawaii.  They will be able to borrow bikes for short, one-way trips, using bikes at various stations throughout a broad area of Honolulu. The bikeshare system will be implemented by Bikeshare Hawaii, a nonprofit organization created by ...
Read More Hawaii Preparing to Launch Bikeshare Program in Honolulu

As Hawaii’s aging population continues to grow, legislators and government agencies continue to face different challenges.  The latest one: A wife is in a community care foster family home paying for her care out of her own pocket or through private insurance, also known as “private pay.” Her husband, who would like to join her ...
Read More A Simpler, More Compassionate Approach to a Complex Dilemma