From the Salem Statesman Journal, July 9, 2010

An Oregon State Hospital physician who was in charge of medical care on the ward where a patient died in October has resigned, the hospital’s interim superintendent Nena Strickland said Friday in an e-mail.

The e-mail was sent to the hospital’s advisory board.

Dr. Michael Robinson’s resignation is effective July 31, Strickland said.

The patient, Moises Perez, was found dead in his hospital bed Oct. 17.

A five-month investigation by the State Office of Investigations and Training determined that the hospital neglected Perez by failing to provide him with adequate medical care.

Investigators found that Perez’s caregivers on Ward 50F failed to properly treat his chronic medical conditions, failed to develop a “meaningful” treatment plan for him, failed to update his medical chart with notes about his condition and failed to return calls from his family in the last weeks of his life.

Five Oregon State Hospital employees received letters of reprimand in June in connection with inadequate care for Perez.

All failed to perform their duties, according to an investigation by the hospital’s human resources department.

Also in the wake of Perez’s death, a committee of OSH clinicians began a separate review of Robinson’s medical practices, and Robinson was assigned to nonpatient duties pending the outcome of the review, officials said.

Robinson also treated David Morse, 56, who hanged himself at the hospital on the same ward a year earlier. A subsequent investigation found Robinson had provided an “appropriate standard of care.”

That investigation continues, Strickland said Friday in the e-mail.

READ – Oregon State Hospital psychiatrist put on desk duty pending outcome of investigation, Oregonian July 9, 2010