Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Department of Health
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- DOH
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1960-
History
The Department of Health is established under section 26-13 and specifically provided for in chapter 321, Hawaii Revised Statutes. It was established in 1960 by the Hawaii State Reorganization Act of 1959.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
The Department of Health administers public health programs for the protection of the physical and mental well-being of the people of Hawaii. It enforces the Hawaii State public health laws as well as the Hawaii environmental health laws. It operates 13 medical facilities.
The Department is the successor agency to the Board of Health. Through its Director, it continues to carry out duties assigned to the Board: making rules and regulations relating to public health, appointing agents and physicians to enforce them, and through these agents taking preventive measures relating to the physical and mental health of the community. These measures include the removal of the sources of filth and causes of disease, the compulsory vaccination of children, the diagnosis of the incipient stages of communicable diseases, and the treatment and the elimination of their causes, quarantine, the isolation of patients suffering from tuberculosis and leprosy, and the care of those persons amenable to treatment. It also maintains hospitals for the indigent and the insane.
In 1960, the reorganization act, which abolished the Board of Health, created the Department of Health. It also created a Director of the Department, under the supervision of the Governor, acting with the advice of the Board of Health.
The Department’s powers have been augmented considerably since 1959 with the passage of legislation relating to industrial hygiene, chronic renal disease, mental health services, maternal and child health, infectious and communicable diseases and the inspection of food, drugs and cosmetics. Consequently in February 1989, the Department adopted a new organizational form, integrating the divisions into larger bodies called "administrations," each headed by a Deputy Director of Health. In 1996 these consisted of General Administration, and the Behavioral Health, Community Hospitals, Environmental Health, and Health Resources Administrations.
Mandates/sources of authority
chapter 321, Hawaii Revised Statutes
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Related entity
Identifier of the related entity
Category of the relationship
Type of relationship
Dates of the relationship
Description of relationship
Related entity
Identifier of the related entity
Category of the relationship
Type of relationship
Dates of the relationship
Description of relationship
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Maintained by
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
ISO 8601
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
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Maintenance notes
2021-09-08, Carol Kellett: updated Maintaining repository.