Security lapses on the Oregon State Hospital contributed to current patient-on-patient assaults, a federal report on the state’s most safe inpatient psychiatric facility has discovered.
The investigation by the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers discovered that employees didn’t at all times adequately supervise their sufferers and that the hospital didn’t totally examine acts of aggression, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
The federal company opened the probe after receiving 4 complaints. Its findings have been printed following an unannounced, onsite survey carried out on the Salem hospital earlier this yr.
A significant incident detailed within the report occurred on Feb. 10, when a affected person positioned one other affected person in a chokehold till they have been unconscious. The sufferer required “in depth” medical care for his or her accidents, in accordance with the report.
Investigators additionally decided that the hospital failed to forestall sexual assault and sexual contact between sufferers.
In January, a affected person was transferred out of a unit resulting from one other affected person’s “hypersexual conduct,” the report mentioned. However within the new unit, the affected person reported being coerced into intercourse.
The hospital acquired the federal report, generally known as a press release of deficiencies, on Might 1. It has 10 calendar days to reply with a plan of correction.
“There’ll at all times be issues we are able to enhance, and we are going to proceed to take action, however what persists is our dedication to the people we’re privileged to take care of,” interim superintendent Sara Walker mentioned in a press release.
As soon as the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers approves the plan, it’ll conduct one other unannounced survey to assessment its implementation.
The state hospital has lengthy struggled to deal with staffing shortages, overcrowding and different safety lapses.
Simply days earlier than receiving the assertion of deficiencies, the hospital was positioned on “instant jeopardy standing” by CMS after a affected person died shortly after arriving on the facility. The federal company famous that emergency response gear was not saved in an organized method within the admissions space. They discovered that whereas this didn’t contribute to the affected person’s loss of life, it introduced a possible future security threat, the Oregon Well being Authority mentioned in a press release.
The jeopardy standing has since been lifted, state well being officers mentioned.
Final summer time, a person newly transferred to the hospital managed to flee whereas totally shackled and drove off in a stolen van. He was discovered in a pond after which taken into custody, authorities mentioned. An ensuing federal investigation discovered that the hospital did not adequately supervise and transport the affected person.
