DAISY Award winners honored for extraordinary nursing

Four St. Charles Health System nurses have been honored with The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses®, recognizing the outstanding, compassionate nursing care they provide patients and families every day:

• Bend: Kathryn Phillips, Medical Services
• Madras: Kate Goodling, Family Birthing Center
• Prineville: Julie Rariden, Emergency Department
• Redmond: Susie Tuttle, Emergency Department

Nominated by patients, families and colleagues, the award recipients were chosen by a committee at St. Charles.

The nurses—who represent all four St. Charles hospitals in Bend, Redmond, Madras and Prineville—were recognized with a ceremony on their respective units and presented with a certificate, a pin and a "healer's touch" sculpture by their hospital’s chief nursing officer. The DAISY honorees will also receive ongoing benefits, such as special rates for tuition and ANCC certification. 

The DAISY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that was established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes by members of his family. Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. (DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System.) The care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.

"When Patrick was critically ill, our family experienced first-hand the remarkable skill and care nurses provide patients every day and night,” said Bonnie Barnes, FAAN, president and co-founder of The DAISY Foundation. “Yet these unsung heroes are seldom recognized for the super-human, extraordinary, compassionate work they do. The kind of work the nurses at St. Charles are called on to do every day epitomizes the purpose of The DAISY Award.”

This is one initiative of The DAISY Foundation to express gratitude to the nursing profession. Additionally, DAISY offers J. Patrick Barnes Grants for Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice Projects, The DAISY Faculty Award to honor inspiring faculty members in schools and colleges of nursing and The DAISY in Training Award for nursing students. More information is available at http://DAISYfoundation.org.

About St. Charles Health System

St. Charles Health System, Inc., headquartered in Bend, Ore., owns and operates St. Charles Bend, Madras, Prineville and Redmond. It also owns family care clinics in Bend, La Pine, Madras, Prineville, Redmond and Sisters. St. Charles is a private, not-for-profit Oregon corporation and is the largest employer in Central Oregon with more than 4,500 caregivers. In addition, there are more than 350 active medical staff members and nearly 200 visiting medical staff members who partner with the health system to provide a wide range of care and service to our communities.

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A Bend couple’s $100,000 gift to the St. Charles Foundation will help fund education and training for nurses in St. Charles Bend’s Intensive Care Unit.

Chris and Laura Crownover said they made the donation because of the high-quality care Chris received during a stay in the ICU last year.

“We wanted to do something that would encourage (the nurses) and give them something special,” said Laura, who has been married to Chris for 35 years. “The nurses we had showed us a lot of compassion and kindness, just by talking with us and visiting with us, and the time and attention they gave us.”

Crownover spent 17 days in the hospital – including 15 in the ICU – last summer after undergoing emergency surgery to drain blood from his brain after one of his blood vessels burst.

“I get headaches,” Chris said. “I threw up one night and then the next day I felt better. But that afternoon, my headache came back and it was so bad, I told Laura I needed to go to the hospital.”

At St. Charles Bend, a CT scan revealed the bleeding, Laura said, and caregivers quickly began to prepare him for surgery. “I barely was able to bring my four kids in to see him and then they whisked him right away,” she said. “It was pretty scary.”

Chris was in surgery for more than two hours, and his prognosis afterward was good. Over the next couple of weeks, however, he experienced a number of complications, including a seizure and more bleeding, said Laura, who stayed at the hospital from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day Chris was in the ICU.

“It was a lot of days with a lot of different (caregivers), and I felt like we got very good care,” she said. “They were attentive and kept us pretty well-informed.”

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, Chris was limited on how many visitors he could have, so a couple of times, nurses wheeled him out to the front of the unit so he could see his adult children. It was those kinds of efforts that motivated the Crownovers to make a donation.

“I’m just so grateful to be alive,” Chris said. “We had the money to do it, so we did it.”

The Crownovers’ gift comes at a time when St. Charles is facing significant financial challenges, and the money will fund important educational efforts.

“Our nurses are the best of the best, and St. Charles is committed to making sure they get the education and training they need to continue to practice at the highest level,” said Joan Ching, vice president and chief nursing executive for the health system. “This money will definitely help us do that, and we are so grateful to the Crownovers – and to hear that Chris is doing well.”

Indeed, Chris said he’s feeling great. “I’m pretty much perfect now,” he said with a laugh, before pausing and continuing. “Other than the scar on my head. It looks like someone did brain surgery on me.”

St. Charles Foundation provides scholarships to nurses and other caregivers through several special funds, including one recently set up in memory of Dr. Doug Lowery-North. An emergency physician for more than three decades, Doug highly valued the nurses he worked with and the nursing profession as a whole. Through donations to that fund, nurses and certified nursing assistants at St. Charles will continue to have access to scholarships and continuing education.

“Gifts from community members like the Crownovers allow St. Charles Foundation to continue to support the nonprofit St. Charles Health System in providing top-notch care,” said Michelle Solley, philanthropy officer for the foundation. “We so appreciate their generosity.”

If you would like to make a gift to St. Charles Foundation to support health care in Central Oregon, go to stcharlesfoundation.org or call 541-706-6996.

Like many of you, I have lived in Central Oregon long enough to know that we cannot count on consistently warm, sunny weather until (at least) the middle of June. I've spent too many Memorial Day weekends bundled up at an outdoor event to be fooled by a mild stretch in March or April.

Sure enough, it has been another chilly spring, and this one has felt particularly rainy, too. Happy hunting, mushroom enthusiasts!

According to the forecast, it looks like temperatures will soon rise into the 70s and 80s and they'll mostly stay there for the next few months. For many of us, that means it's time to get outside for walking, running, hiking, biking, rock climbing and other fun activities on Central Oregon's trails, rivers, lakes and backcountry.

No one likes a killjoy, but as the leader of the region's largest health care provider, it is my duty to tell you this: Summer is the busy season at St. Charles' Urgent Care clinics and the Emergency Departments in Bend, Madras, Prineville and Redmond. And the folks who manage those facilities tell me we are already seeing high volumes of patients, even before the weather has really turned.

This is not like the past two summers, when I asked you to stay home in hopes of reducing strain on our clinics and ERs as they took care of COVID-19 patients. I am not asking you to skip that ascent up Smith Rock or the ATV ride through the Ochocos this year.

What I do want to do is encourage you to recreate safely and responsibly so you don't have to come see us at St. Charles. Wherever you’re going and whatever you're doing, please slow down, be patient and courteous, wear protective gear (including a helmet) if appropriate and follow all applicable laws and regulations. I'd rather you head home after having fun – not to one of our facilities.

If you do need care, by all means, visit one of our clinics or, in an emergency, your nearest ER. We'll be here if you need us and we will take care of you.

Have fun and be safe out there this summer!

Sincerely,
Joe

Pictured above from left: Outstanding St. Charles nurses Kathryn Phillips, Susie Tuttle, Kate Goodling and Julie Rariden.DAISY Award winners honored for extraordinary nursing

The following St. Charles Health System nurses have been honored with The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses®, recognizing the outstanding, compassionate nursing care they provide patients and families every day:

• Bend: Kathryn Phillips, Medical Services
• Madras: Kate Goodling, Family Birthing Center
• Prineville: Julie Rariden, Emergency Department
• Redmond: Susie Tuttle, Emergency Department

Nominated by patients, families and colleagues, the award recipients were chosen by a committee at St. Charles.

The nurses—who represent all four St. Charles hospitals in Bend, Redmond, Madras and Prineville—were recognized with a ceremony on their respective units and presented with a certificate, a pin and a "healer's touch" sculpture by their hospital’s chief nursing officer. The DAISY honorees will also receive ongoing benefits, such as special rates for tuition and ANCC certification. 

The DAISY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that was established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes by members of his family. Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. (DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System.) The care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.

"When Patrick was critically ill, our family experienced first-hand the remarkable skill and care nurses provide patients every day and night,” said Bonnie Barnes, FAAN, president and co-founder of The DAISY Foundation. “Yet these unsung heroes are seldom recognized for the super-human, extraordinary, compassionate work they do. The kind of work the nurses at St. Charles are called on to do every day epitomizes the purpose of The DAISY Award.”

This is one initiative of The DAISY Foundation to express gratitude to the nursing profession. Additionally, DAISY offers J. Patrick Barnes Grants for Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice Projects, The DAISY Faculty Award to honor inspiring faculty members in schools and colleges of nursing and The DAISY in Training Award for nursing students. More information is available at http://DAISYfoundation.org.

Layered Taco Dip

Here's an easy recipe that's altered to make it little more guilt-free.

16 oz. zesty salsa refried beans

1.5 cups plain Greek yogurt

1 pkg. taco seasoning

3 medium avocados

2 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

4 oz. cheddar cheese

3 medium tomatoes

1 cup green onion

Tortillas for making baked chips

Instructions:

Chop tomatoes, slice green onions (including tops) and grate cheddar cheese.

Mix yogurt and taco seasoning.

Mash avocado and mix with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Spread beans on large platter. Follow with a layer of avocado mixture, then a layer of yogurt mixture. Sprinkle with tomato and green onion, then finish with a sprinkling of cheddar cheese on top.

Cut corn tortillas into 8 wedges per tortilla. Spread on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately six minutes. Flip wedges and bake an additional 6-9 minutes until color starts to turn darker.

For the second time, all four St. Charles hospital campuses have been recognized by the annual Healthcare Equality Index for their policies and practices related to the equity and inclusion of LGTBQ+ patients, visitors and employees.

The 2022 Healthcare Equality Index named St. Charles Bend, Madras, Prineville and Redmond each as a “Top Performer” in its annual report, which has been published by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation for the past 15 years. They are four of 251 health care providers nationwide to receive “Top Performer” designation.

The four St. Charles hospitals also made the list in 2020.

“At St. Charles, we are striving to create America’s healthiest community, together. And when we say ‘together,’ we mean together – with everyone having a seat at the table,” said St. Charles President and CEO Joe Sluka. “Across our health system and Central Oregon, we are committed to being a place where people feel welcome and accepted, whether they are receiving care or providing care. We still have work to do, but this recognition by the Healthcare Equality Index is evidence that we are on the right track.”

The HEI is a national benchmarking tool that evaluates and scores health care facilities on detailed criteria falling under four central pillars:

• Foundational policies and training in LGBTQ+ patient-centered care
• LGBTQ+ patient services and support
• Employee benefits and policies
• Patient and community engagement

Facilities are evaluated and scored on a scale of 100. Each of the four St. Charles hospitals received a score of 90 on the strength of their non-discrimination and staff training, their patient services and support and their employee benefits and policies.

Over the past few years, St. Charles has taken many steps to create an inclusive environment, including protecting LGBTQ+ caregivers and patients from discrimination in the workplace and in receiving care. Earlier this year, the health system hired a manager of caregiver inclusion and experience, Dr. Shilo Tippett, who oversees the organization’s work to establish and grow a culture of inclusion, diversity, equity and acceptance (IDEA).

Alongside the caregivers on St. Charles’ IDEA Council, Tippett is working on developing programs to educate managers and physicians on inclusivity, incorporating IDEA concepts into the health system’s orientation for new caregivers and annual education for all caregivers, and investing in IDEA training for key roles within the organization.

And in 2019, several members of St. Charles’ executive leadership group completed a three-part training on LGTBQ+ patient-centered care, while more than 350 caregivers went through the health system’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Class.

“We’re doing more than just talking about this stuff,” Tippett said recently. “We’re taking action.”

There is no sense in sugarcoating it: The past several days have been really tough.

We’ve been very open about the fact that St. Charles is facing significant financial challenges, and last week, we had to address those by doing something no organization wants to do: Reducing our workforce.

While we are heavy-hearted over the departure of our colleagues and grateful for their dedication to our community, it is important to remember that good work continues to happen at St. Charles.

One example of that work is recognized in the 2022 Healthcare Equality Index (HEI), an annual report that honors health systems for their policies and practices related to the equity and inclusion of LGTBQ+ patients, visitors and employees.

This year’s report names all of our hospitals – in Bend, Madras, Prineville and Redmond – as “Top Performers” with regard to our work to make St. Charles a welcoming and accepting place for LGBTQ+ people to both receive and provide care.

I’m very proud of this recognition, for a couple of reasons.

First of all, welcoming and accepting all people is simply the right thing to do. When we say St. Charles is committed to caring for all, we mean it.

Secondly, we didn’t make this list by talking about how important inclusion, diversity, equity and acceptance is at St. Charles. We made it by turning those priorities into action: We’ve held training for our medical staff, our leaders and our caregivers. We’ve updated our policies to protect LGBTQ+ caregivers and patients from discrimination. We’ve hired a dedicated caregiver to oversee this work. We’ve welcomed Nike’s vice president of global diversity and inclusion to our board of directors, and we are learning from him.

And to help celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month in June, St. Charles Foundation and the St. Charles IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity, acceptance) Council are involved in Pride events in Bend and Prineville. We will also be flying the Progress Pride flag at our four hospitals, because we know it’s important to demonstrate our commitment to IDEA principles not only through action, but visibility in the community as well.

With all of that said, St. Charles’ appearance in the 2022 HEI doesn’t mean we have achieved our goal and are finished with this work. In fact, we can always do more, because we can always be more inclusive and more welcoming to our patients and caregivers.

It is work worth doing, and this recognition is evidence that St. Charles is willing to do it.

Thanks, as always, for reading, and for your support.

Sincerely,
Joe

St. Charles’ mounting financial challenges lead to workforce reductions 

Faced with skyrocketing contract labor, equipment and supply costs—and flat revenue—St. Charles Health System leadership has made the difficult decision to reduce its workforce. The reduction will impact 105 caregivers through layoffs. An additional 76 positions that are currently vacant have also been eliminated.  

The 105 layoffs—which will take place over the next three days—are targeted to mostly non-clinical areas where the organization found through a benchmark data review process that it has more staff than other health systems of a similar size.  

“For the past two years, our caregivers have taken on and conquered unprecedented challenges to care for our community, which is why it feels particularly unfair that we now find ourselves in this position,” said St. Charles President and CEO Joe Sluka. “While our financial situation isn’t unlike many other health systems around the country, this decision hurts. These are our people.” 

Even after taking aggressive steps to address its current financial challenges, which have included both reducing expenses and identifying revenue improvement opportunities, the health system hemorrhaged $21.8 million through April. Year to date, St. Charles is facing a –6.7% operating loss. 

The organization’s expenses and revenue began deteriorating in the spring of 2020, when its contract labor, equipment and supply costs began to soar at the same time it was forced to significantly reduce the number of surgeries it performed due to pandemic-related restrictions and the need to preserve bed capacity to care for critically ill COVID-19 patients. This imbalance persisted through 2021 as St. Charles experienced three significant surges of COVID-19 patients—at times operating up to 107% of its capacity—making it difficult to resume its pre-pandemic level of surgeries and other services. Further compounding St. Charles’ financial stress is the repayment of the more than $95 million in federal funds it received over the last two years to support its operations. 

Though the workforce changes the health system is making this week are projected to reduce its expenses by approximately $20 million annually, St. Charles will still end 2022 with a substantial operating loss. With a sustained focus on improving the efficiency of its operations, the organization is working toward achieving a positive operating margin by the end of 2023 or early in 2024.  

“It has taken two long years of the pandemic to get us into this situation,” Sluka said, “and it will take at least two years for us to get out of it. But we will. And we will continue to take excellent care of our community now and in the future.” 

About St. Charles Health System 

St. Charles Health System, Inc., headquartered in Bend, Ore., owns and operates St. Charles Bend, Madras, Prineville and Redmond. It also owns family care clinics in Bend, La Pine, Madras, Prineville, Redmond and Sisters. St. Charles is a private, not-for-profit Oregon corporation and is the largest employer in Central Oregon with more than 4,500 caregivers. In addition, there are more than 350 active medical staff members and nearly 200 visiting medical staff members who partner with the health system to provide a wide range of care and service to our communities. 

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Over the past two years, St. Charles caregivers have worked tirelessly to care for the people of Central Oregon when they needed it most: during a global pandemic – a public health crisis unprecedented in our lifetime.

They turned a parking lot into a COVID-19 testing site.

They converted an empty conference room into a community vaccine clinic.

They’ve taken care of the sickest COVID-19 patients in our hospitals and provided the latest treatments at our clinics.

Along the way, St. Charles – with support from the community – did everything we could to take care of our caregivers, so that they could take care of you.

All of that, of course, came at a price:

• Our labor costs have skyrocketed, largely due to our need to bring in expensive contract clinical staff from other areas of the country to help us meet the community’s needs.
• Equipment and supply costs have also increased, as they have in every industry.
• Our surgery volumes have been down for two years, which means significantly decreased revenues.
• Last but not least, we are now paying back federal pandemic relief funds to the tune of more than $1 million every week.

We’ve been working hard to reduce expenses for a few months, and those efforts have helped. But they are not enough to dig us out of this financial hole. We ended the month of April with a $21.8 million loss.

We are now at the point where we have to take additional action to ensure the long-term financial stability of the health system.

It pains me to tell you that we must reduce our workforce this week. We are eliminating 76 positions that were already vacant, but that isn’t enough. We are also reducing 105 positions that will result in layoffs.

First and foremost, that is not just a number. Those are our colleagues and our friends. We are grateful to them for their dedication to our community and we are saddened to see them go.

Over the past few weeks, we have gone through a thorough process in which we compared every area of our organization to industry benchmark standards.

Where we are out of line with those standards, we must make changes. In particular, many leadership positions are being eliminated to bring our structures into alignment with other health systems of our size.

These reductions are projected to reduce expenses by more than $20 million annually.

Still, we will likely end 2022 in the red. It has taken us two pandemic years to get us into this situation, and it will take at least two years for us to recover. And sadly, we are not alone. Organizations across Oregon and the country are facing similar financial challenges.

To the communities we serve, I want to reassure you of a few things:

• We have a responsibility to ensure our community has access to high-quality health care and are focusing these reductions in mostly non-clinical areas to minimize the impact on patients.
• We are still recruiting and hiring new caregivers to rebuild our workforce and reduce our need for expensive contract labor.
• We are reviewing all of our service lines to ensure they are financially sustainable, which could result in additional changes.

While these decisions are incredibly difficult, we are making them because we are committed to becoming a more efficient health system that is well-equipped to continue what we’ve done for the past 104 years: Care for the people of Central Oregon.

As always, we greatly appreciate your support.

Sincerely,
Joe

"I think St. Charles has evolved into a big organization compared to what it was 30 years ago, and we've had growing pains a couple of times. But I think right now we've definitely found a way to adapt to our growth. I think we've got nice people here that really enjoy what they're doing, and I I love that."

- Greg, manager of the Biomedical department, which takes care of all 15,000+ pieces of medical equipment used for patient care across the health system. Greg's 30th anniversary with St. Charles is this month.