Oregon State Hospital, the state’s highest-level psychiatric institution, has faced much scrutiny in recent years over staffing problems, questionable caretaking practices, and a high profile patient death—and it has churned through interim leader after interim leader.
Now, the Oregon Health Authority announced this week, it will be getting a permanent one: a Washington state health official named Sean Murphy.
“This is an important moment for the state psychiatric hospital,” OHA director Sejal Hathi told lawmakers Wednesday, citing Murphy’s “deep experience in behavioral health, state hospital operations, civil commitment systems, correctional health, and large-scale public sector transformations.”…