State Hospital chief
credited for recovery

Family reasons cause Administrator
Paul Guggenheim to leave

On his last day as Hawaii State Hospital administrator, Paul Guggenheim talked with pride about what he and the staff accomplished, not the least of which was ending federal oversight of the facility.

"We did some great things," he said yesterday in an interview. "This is a hospital I would put somebody in who I loved. I'm not sure I would have said that when I came."

Guggenheim took over the Kaneohe hospital in October 2001 in the midst of state efforts to comply with court orders. The U.S. Department of Justice had sued the state in 1991 over unsafe, unsanitary and overcrowded conditions.

U.S. District Chief Judge David Ezra released the hospital from the lawsuit in December with U.S. Magistrate Kevin Chang, the court's special master in the case, citing dramatic changes and progress at the facility.

"If not for a family issue, I would be staying here," Guggenheim said. "I love this place. I love the people. I love the food and climate. There is nothing here I don't like."

He said he is relocating to Northfield, Ohio, to be near his daughter, his only child, who is working on a doctorate degree at Kent State University and getting married in October.

Administering the state's mental hospital "is probably one of the toughest jobs you could have in this state," said state Rep. Dennis Arakaki (D, Alewa Heights-Kalihi Valley-Fort Shafter), House Health Committee chairman. "He kind of did it quietly and effectively, without complaining a lot."

Arakaki said Guggenheim's biggest achievement was improving the hospital to the point of shedding court oversight and that he is sorry to see him go.

Guggenheim is excited about a new challenge as chief executive officer of the North Coast Behavioral Health Care System, a psychiatric hospital complex with three sites, 250 beds and 2,500 admissions a year. He clearly thrives on challenges, leaving a position as executive director of Core Behavioral Health Centers, a private nonprofit Cincinnati company, to come here.

Randy Hack, consumer adviser in the state Health Department's Adult Mental Health Division, said Guggenheim "was a caring, compassionate superintendent who made many positive changes at the hospital and who helped instill a spirit of recovery amongst the consumers and staff."

Hack said Guggenheim brought diverse community members together in a council to advise the hospital and that under overall leadership of Dr. Thomas Hester, Adult Mental Health Division chief, the hospital was able to emerge from the consent decree.

He said Guggenheim established a "treatment mall," which provides classes and activities for patients that enable them to learn and to improve themselves.

Guggenheim said he is leaving "a very strong team" at the hospital, with Associate Administrator Bill Elliott as acting administrator until a successor is named. He noted that there are too many patients right now, about 183, when the number should be about 178.

Guggenheim is so proud of the hospital that he nominated the staff as the state Health Department's "team of the year." The department selected the hospital team to compete for the state honor with teams from other departments in the fall.

"I think it acknowledges what the hospital has been through, the progress that has been made," he said.

"We've got 650 people here. That's why we won team of the year. It's about the hospital, patients and staff. It's never about the administrator. We come and we go."