Oregon State Hospital’s Junction City campus could lose federal funding due to violations

A federal inquiry into the Junction City Oregon State Hospital campus has found violations including having no on-site administrator, not providing adequate planning or supervision for patients when leaving the hospital, and failing to properly handle incidents involving physical altercations and sexual assault between patients, among other lapses.

Oregon State Hospital provides psychiatric care for adults who need hospital-level mental health treatment. The hospital is accountable to federal regulations because it accepts Medicare and Medicaid funding for its patients. State hospital administrators have 10 days to submit a corrective action plan or risk losing certification to be reimbursed for costs covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

The report detailing the hospital’s violations of state a federal regulations is 132 pages long and contains detailed notes about some of the issues discovered during the inquiry ranging from having the wrong number of staff members to safely supervise an off-campus trip to a report of the mishandling of an incident in which a patient was allegedly sexually assaulted by their roommate.

There has also been no onsite administrator since the last one retired in December 2020, according to the report. The Junction City hospital has been run from afar by managers at the Salem campus of the Oregon State Hospital, in violation of federal regulations regarding satellite campuses.

Oregon Health Authority, which oversees both state hospital campuses, conducted the inquiry on behalf of federal regulators.

“Our staff at the Oregon State Hospital want to provide the highest quality care to our patients so they can recover and return to live healthy and productive lives in their communities,” said state hospital Superintendent Dolly Matteucci in a statement. “We look forward to addressing each of the administrative, documentation and supervision issues highlighted in this report.”

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