WATERVILLE – Marcia Jones hung up the phone Monday morning and wept.

Twenty months after her mother died at MaineGeneral Medical Center, Jones finally received the news she had hoped for: The psychiatrist who failed to properly assess her mother’s deteriorating health in the hours before her death had finally admitted wrongdoing.

In a call from a state official, Jones learned that Dr. Silvia Bloch had signed a formal reprimand for unprofessional conduct in treating Florence Norton, 58, of Oakland. The action, approved this week by the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine, will become a permanent blemish on Bloch’s record.

Jones, who with her two sisters had sought to hold someone accountable for Norton’s death, said her family finally has closure.

She confirmed that a malpractice claim against the hospital and Bloch, who now works at a hospital in South Carolina, recently had been settled. Jones said she was barred from discussing the terms.

Two former psychiatric nurses at MaineGeneral also were disciplined earlier this year in connection with the case. Shirley Frasier of Waterville surrendered her nursing license, and Patricia Lanning of Benton had her license revoked.

“It’s done,” Jones, a 34-year-old homemaker from Winslow, said Wednesday.

“As long as [Bloch] is taking some responsibility for what she’s done, we’re fine,” she said. “It’s over.”

Norton, a Portland native who had worked in the admissions office at Colby College, was being treated for depression in the Seton Unit of MaineGeneral when she complained of a headache, collapsed and vomited the afternoon of March 12, 1999. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage early the next morning.

Norton had entered the hospital’s psychiatric unit voluntarily just two days earlier. Bloch was her psychiatrist.

After Norton’s collapse, Bloch prescribed Phenergan, a sedative often used to treat nausea. A nurse then helped Norton back to her room, gave the shot and let her drift off to sleep.

As the Bangor Daily News first reported in September, no one considered Norton’s condition serious enough to check for more serious neurological problems. Instead, Bloch and other staff members just let her sleep.

Jones and other family members learned about their mother’s collapse only after arriving at the hospital for a previously scheduled meeting. In subsequent complaints filed with the state, they said they had tried unsuccessfully to summon help after finding their mother twitching and unresponsive.

They said Bloch and other staff members ignored their pleas, telling them their mother was just sleeping. Seven hours passed before someone finally realized something was wrong.

By then, Norton had lapsed into a coma. She died at 4:52 a.m. March 13, 1999. Medical staff concluded that a blood vessel had ruptured, causing uncontrolled bleeding inside her brain.

Jones soon afterward filed complaints with the state. An investigation by the Department of Human Services, which licenses hospitals, concluded that MaineGeneral staff had failed to adequately assess Norton’s condition or to take her family’s concerns seriously.

DHS took no further action against the hospital after accepting a plan to correct the problems. The hospital agreed, among other things, to hire a physician’s assistant to monitor the physical conditions of psychiatric patients.

The hospital remains fully licensed and accredited. A spokeswoman couldn’t be reached Wednesday for comment on the settlement of the family’s malpractice claim.

With the two nurses already having been disciplined, the only piece of the case that remained unresolved was the family’s complaint against Bloch, the psychiatrist.

In a consent agreement negotiated with the medical board, Bloch admitted that she had failed to assess Norton’s condition properly before prescribing the sedative after the woman collapsed.

Bloch, who signed the document Monday, also acknowledged that her interaction with Norton’s daughters had been unprofessional, violating state standards of conduct.

Bloch failed to renew her medical license in Maine when it expired in the fall of 1999, but she remains fully licensed in South Carolina. She now practices at Gilliam Psychiatric Hospital, in Columbia, S.C.

In the Maine consent agreement, Bloch:

. Accepted a reprimand as discipline by the board. The action will become part of her record, meaning that licensing agencies in other states will have access to the information.

. Agreed to take an introductory course in neurology for psychiatrists offered by Harvard University or an equivalent medical school.

. Waived her right to a hearing before the board or any court in Maine.

Neither Bloch nor her attorney, Christopher Nyhan of Portland, could be reached Wednesday for comment.

Randal Manning, executive director of the state Board of Licensure in Medicine, said the disciplinary action would be entered into a national database.

Such action ultimately could harm Bloch’s ability to obtain credentials to work in a hospital or to become affiliated with a health maintenance organization or other insurance network.

“Within 60 days, every licensing board in the country will know about it,” Manning said Wednesday. “This will be on her record for a long time.”

Jones, Norton’s daughter, said she had learned about the agreement in a telephone call from Ruth McNiff, the assistant state attorney general who had negotiated it.

After the 20-minute conversation, she said, she hung up the phone and wept. After nearly two years, she finally could put the ordeal behind her.

“I’m glad that [Bloch] has to admit that she totally did not look at the symptoms,” Jones said. “She basically put the drugs in my mother, let her go to sleep and die.”