A male patient of Westwood Lodge on Clapboardtree Street escaped the facility on Saturday night, prompting a police search with a K-9 unit, according to a report on MyFoxBoston.com.

After fleeing the hospital, the patient then hid underneath the deck of a Whitney Avenue home for about an hour before Westwood Police were able to persuade him to come out, according to MyFoxBoston.com.

It isn't the first incident of a patient escape from Westwood Lodge. But local and safety officials have been working to fix that problem.

Patient escapes prompted the Westwood Police and Fire Departments to conduct safety evaluations of Westwood Lodge, which began last spring and are ongoing. The nearby athletic field has been off limits for use during the evaluations.

In an update last fall, Westwood Police Chief William Chase said that the safety of the building was improving, having reported only five patient escapes last year up to September. That number was a dramatic improvement over 20 patient escapes by September 2010.

"Five is still too many," Chase told the Westwood Board of Selectmen in September, "and we are still looking for improvements."