Oregon State Hospital failed to conduct hourly checks to ensure patients were ‘alive and breathing’

Staff at the Oregon State Hospital neglected to conduct hourly checks to ensure patients were alive and breathing, a failure that in one case led to a patient being found dead 4 1/2 hours after the last verification, investigators found. Those findings, outlined in a notice provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive, led the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to place the state psychiatric hospital in Salem in “immediate jeopardy status.” The notice puts the hospital at risk of becoming ineligible for Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement without corrective action. The investigators...