After fatal drug overdose, Oregon State Hospital resumes limited in-person visits for patients 

by Ben Botkin, Oregon Capital Chronicle
July 19, 2024

Oregon State Hospital will resume in-person visits for some patients on Monday after suspending them in May after a patient died of a suspected fentanyl overdose. 

Officials at the state-run psychiatric facility suspended in-person visits between patients and their family and friends so the hospital could retool its visiting policies, with an eye toward preventing visitors from passing drugs or other contraband on to patients. The hospital has nearly 700 patients between its main campus in Salem and a smaller satellite campus in Junction City.

For now, the hospital is opening up in-person visits to patients who no longer require a higher hospital level of care and are in secure residential treatment facility units. This is because these patients have lower safety and security risks, hospital officials said in their announcement. 

The restoration of in-person visits will apply to 157 patients, or about 23% of the hospital’s population of 688 patients. Another 531 patients are in the higher hospital level of care and waiting for visits to resume. 

Larry Bingham, a spokesperson for the hospital, declined to say when in-person visits may return for the rest of the hospital population.

“We recognize how important it is for patients to maintain healthy connections with their support system, and we are continuing to work on a plan to reopen visitation to other patients,” he said in an email to the Capital Chronicle. “Video visitation remains an option for all patients.”

Visitors will now be screened with a handheld metal detector and asked to turn out their pockets. They can no longer wear or bring coats into the visitation area, the hospital said. 

Visitors and patients can embrace at the start and end of the visit but not touch each other at other points. Patients won’t be allowed access to any items visitors bring, including baby blankets and bottles.

After the patient died of a fatal overdose on May 24, federal inspectors found that hospital staff failed to check on him hourly. The patient was last observed alive four and a half hours before staff found him unresponsive in his room. 

In response, the hospital enacted new procedures to regularly check on sleeping patients. 

But problems elsewhere have persisted. At least two patients last week tested positive in preliminary tests for illicit drugs that hospital officials believe arrived through the mail. The hospital has held the mail for those patients and ordered random drug tests to see how widespread the problem is.

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