Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon State Hospital officials were read the riot act by top state lawmakers Friday.  It was the first meeting of a new legislative oversight committee, and it comes a few weeks after a scathing federal report that alleges civil rights violations at the mental institution.  Salem correspondent Chris Lehman reports.

Lawmakers listened intently as Oregon Assistant Attorney General Micky Logan walked them through the litany of horrors contained in the 48-page federal report.

Micky Logan:  “Mice in patients’ rooms, Norovirus outbreaks, scabies outbreaks, and failure of staff to clean-up messes in seclusion rooms.”

Lawmakers were flabbergasted to learn that even one of the most basic sanitation procedures wasn’t being followed.

Micky Logan: “Neither Oregon State Hospital nor its patients comply with generally accepted standards for hand-washing.”

Senate President Peter Courtney pulled no punches when addressing officials of the state agency in charge of the hospital.

Peter Courtney:  “If you think I have a confidence problem, you’re right”

The man Courtney was talking to was Bruce Goldberg, the director of the Department of Human Services.  Goldberg said the report was very disturbing.

Bruce Goldberg:  “The findings that were in this report are serious, are unacceptable for us.”

What might matter more is that the findings are unacceptable to the federal government.  The U.S. Department of Justice is threatening to seize control of the hospital through a lawsuit if the state doesn’t address the problems.

Goldberg says improvements are already being made.

Bruce Goldberg:  “We’ve already begun to do a variety of things.  And I think we’re in a position and will be to show you some of the things that have happened.”

Goldberg says they’ll have a list of improvements by next week.

Senator Courtney says the legislature does share some of the blame for not providing more oversight for the Oregon State Hospital.  But he noted that in the past four years, lawmakers came up with funding for every hospital related request sent their way.

Peter Courtney:  “Everything that was asked for, we gave.  Democrat, Republican.  Rural, urban.  We gave it.”

To that, Goldberg responded: Maybe we need to do a better job of asking.

Web Links:

Department of Justice report on Oregon State Hospital

Oregon State Hospital web site