Oregon State Hospital staff injuries spike as facility strains to admit new patients

Kimberly Thoma has injured her back, her head and her elbow throughout the course of her 10 years working with patients as a mental health technician at Oregon State Hospital in Salem.

She's had her hair pulled. She's fallen hard when running to intervene in a patient-on-patient assault. She had a patient and co-worker tumble on top of her. "As we were turning, he tripped me and I fell underneath him and at least one other staff member," she said. "They fell on my lower back and I strained my entire back."

Her experiences aren't unusual. Worker injuries from patient-related incidents at the state-run psychiatric hospital rose to a five year high in 2018, worker compensation data show.

Employees at the hospital filed 307 worker's compensation claims for injuries tied to patient assaults or patient control incidents in 2018. That's nearly a twofold increase from 2017, the Statesman Journal's analysis found.

Read more: https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/26/oregon-state-hospital-staff-injuries-rise-strain-to-admit-new-patients-salem-court-ordered/1420514001/
(Salem Statesman Journal)