Surveyor at Oregon State Hospital finds conditions that pose ‘serious threat to patient health and safety’
SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The Joint Commission notified Oregon State Hospital Wednesday that it has identified a serious threat to patient health and safety at the hospital, based on findings from a survey that took place Monday and Tuesday in response to what the Salem facility called "a sentinel event."
The Joint Commission is an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies health care organizations and programs in the U.S.
The surveyor observed unit activity, reviewed video footage and documentation (including clinical documentation, policies, training records, and more), and conducted staff interviews, the facility said in Wednesday's news release, which continues in full below:
The survey identified conditions that TJC believes could pose a serious threat to patient health and safety in three areas:
- providing a safe environment for patients in seclusion
- patient assessment during seclusion and following a fall
- emergency medical response, including immediacy of response and emergency communication procedures.
OSH leadership says it has prioritized the TJC findings and assigned workgroup leads for each of the deficiencies. Those individuals have started building their teams to develop immediate remediation plans.
OSH leadership has also reached out to union leaders to make sure represented staff who know the work well are included on those teams. OSH said it took immediate actions to activate an existing plan to create a seclusion response team and is already seeing positive results.
TJC will conduct a follow-up survey no later than Thursday, April 17 to validate whether or not OSH has remediated the threats identified in the survey.
If successful, TJC will reaffirm OSH’s accreditation status and conduct at least one follow-up survey to assess OSH’s sustained implementation of its corrective actions.
