Oregon State Hospital in Salem (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) The Oregon State Hospital campus in Salem temporarily closed a unit for nearly a week after a worsening staff shortage left too few employees available to care for patients. A July 7 email obtained by Salem Reporter from Sara Walker, the hospital’s[Read More…]

The Oregon State Hospital on May 28, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) The Oregon State Hospital must work with counties across the state to help patients return to community settings, expand its substance abuse treatment and produce more frequent data on court-ordered admissions, according to a report by an expert the[Read More…]

Oregon State Hospital’s Salem campus. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Federal regulators have threatened to yank the certification for Oregon State Hospital’s Junction City unit if it doesn’t immediately fix multiple problems at that campus, including suspected sexual assault, attacks and a lack of supervision. The Oregon Health Authority, which manages the[Read More…]

The Oregon State Hospital on May 28, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) A contracted worker at Oregon State Hospital last month punched a patient who moments before had hurled racist slurs at the staffer. Erik Banks, the contracted mental health technician, was “removed from our facility and instructed not to return,”[Read More…]

The Oregon State Hospital in Salem (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) The beleaguered Oregon State Hospital plans to hire more nurses to relieve overworked staff and improve care thanks to another $10 million appropriation by the Legislature.  The money will enable the institution to convert 134 temporary nursing positions into permanent jobs[Read More…]

Oregon State Hospital (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Regular treatments and activities are resuming at the Oregon State Hospital’s Salem campus as a Covid outbreak that has sickened hundreds of patients and employees over the past two months is now winding down. The hospital is lifting additional restrictions imposed during the omicron[Read More…]

(Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) The Oregon State Hospital by spring will have to produce data showing progress in admitting people with mental illnesses for court-ordered treatment on time, according to a report by an outside expert the state brought in to address the hospital’s capacity issues. The hospital will have to[Read More…]

(Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of physical and sexual violence against children. A Seaside man is suing Oregon State Hospital, claiming he was sexually abused as a patient in the late 1990s by a psychiatric aide who was later convicted of sexually abusing three underage boys[Read More…]

Oregon State Hospital on Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) The Oregon State Hospital is pausing new patient admissions due to a Covid outbreak with 29 patients and 32 employees in the Salem facility testing positive for the virus since Dec. 27. Hospital Superintendent Dolly Matteucci made the announcement[Read More…]

A sign on a door into a screening area at Oregon State Hospital on Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Patients on two units at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem have been quarantined following a Covid outbreak. In an email to all hospital employees Sunday evening, Sara Walker,[Read More…]