A small, incomplete step toward accountability.
That’s how we viewed last week’s legislative hearing on recent patient deaths at Oregon State Hospital.
Eight months after 25-year-old Lane County resident Kenneth Hass fell and died in a filthy seclusion room at the state psychiatric hospital, Oregon Health Authority officials acknowledged to a state Senate committee what Lookout Eugene-Springfield’s reporting already revealed: A “culture of complacency” has prevented hospital employees from asking questions or raising concerns when they see something wrong, and that culture has contributed to five unexpected patient deaths in two years…