St. Charles and OFNHP unable to come to agreement on next steps 

BEND, Ore. – In an effort to move forward negotiations on a first-time labor contract, St. Charles Health System approached the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals Tuesday with an offer to return to the bargaining table with a federal mediator today if the union would revoke its strike notice.  

The union was unwilling to do so. The notice, which St. Charles received on Feb. 22, indicates the 156 technical employees represented by OFNHP plan to strike for an indefinite amount of time starting at 8 a.m. Thursday, March 4.   

“We simply don’t have the resources to focus on bargaining a new contract while we are actively preparing for a strike of our technical workforce,” said Aaron Adams, president of St. Charles Bend. “Our top priority must be ensuring we have replacement workers here to care for our community.” 

The timing of the strike is particularly challenging as St. Charles continues to suffer incredible financial losses due to COVID-19. The health system ended 2020 about $21 million below its financial targets even after Cares Act relief funding – mostly because of extended periods of time where surgeries were canceled due to state restrictions or the high volume of COVID-19 patients. St. Charles is experiencing a difficult start to 2021 as well after posting an operating loss of $4.9 million in the month of January. 

St. Charles is not alone. The American Hospital Association estimates that hospitals lost approximately $323 billion in revenue in 2020.  

“While many other health systems laid off staff early on in the pandemic, we made sure our caregivers continued to receive full paychecks even when we didn’t have patients for them to care for,” Adams said. “We have put our caregivers and our patients first throughout this pandemic, which has been hard on us financially. It is unfortunate that OFNHP is now adding to that financial strain.” 

St. Charles values its caregivers and respects their rights to union representation. Before the strike notice was sent, the health system initiated discussions with a federal mediator to help move forward negotiations in the best interest of all involved.  

Only two core issues remain on the table at this time: compensation and union security.  

The teams have agreed upon wages for the first year of the contract. Under this agreement, the average hourly wage for techs in the bargaining unit will be $41.94 per hour once the contract is ratified. This equates to an annual salary of $87,000 a year for a full-time equivalent position, not including overtime, premium pay, shift differentials and other benefits.  

As for union security, St. Charles has asked for an open shop in order to give its caregivers a choice on whether they are members of the union. The union has requested a closed shop, meaning all St. Charles technical employees represented by OFNHP could lose their jobs if they decide they do not want to join the union.  

“We believe in the rights of our caregivers who are interested in union representation to be represented,” Adams said. “But we also believe those who are not interested should have the same right to decline union membership.”  

At this time, the strike is scheduled to go forward on Thursday morning. The parties are still scheduled to meet with a federal mediator for the next bargaining session on March 10.

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 4,600 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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St. Charles prepares for potential strike of technical employees

BEND, Ore. – St. Charles Health System is continuing to prepare for a strike of its technical employees who are represented by the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals. According to the notice received last week, the strike is set to begin at 8 a.m. on March 4 and will last for an indefinite period of time. OFNHP represents about 150 technical caregivers on the St. Charles Bend campus.

St. Charles has filed two unfair labor practice charges against OFNHP with the National Labor Relations Board because we believe the strike notice was not lawful and that the union is not bargaining in good faith.

“The National Labor Relations Act requires that when a first contract is being negotiated the union must provide at least 30-days’ notice of the contract dispute to state and federal mediation agencies so the dispute may be resolved without a work stoppage,” said Rebecca Berry, vice president of Human Resources for St. Charles. “As a result, we believe the strike notice is unlawful and the NLRB is now investigating that issue.”

It is our understanding the NLRB will not reach a decision before the March 4 strike date. Consequently, St. Charles has also filed a complaint for injunctive relief to ensure we can maintain health care services until the issue can be resolved.

A hearing is scheduled related to the injunction request in federal court in Eugene at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 2. If the injunction is not granted, the strike will not be paused, but the issue of the legality of the strike notice will remain before the National Labor Relations Board.

“It is our fundamental mission and responsibility as a health care organization to take care of our community,” said Aaron Adams, president of St. Charles Bend. “Although we believe the strike notice is unlawful, we will proceed with preparations to ensure continued care for our patients.”

Until the outcome of the injunction hearing is known, St. Charles is continuing to prepare for a work stoppage. The health system has contracted with an outside agency to hire qualified replacement workers and is also asking internal caregivers who hold technical certifications, but who are not part of the bargaining unit, to help fill hospital shifts. The goal is to reduce disruptions to patient care as much as possible.

“The union has indicated they are striking to get St. Charles to come back to the bargaining table,” Berry said. “We find OFNHP’s reasons for the strike confusing since we already had a bargaining session scheduled for March 10 with a federal mediator. We were also discussing additional, earlier bargaining dates with the mediator prior to receiving the strike notice.”

St. Charles requested a federal mediator to facilitate negotiations in order to speed up the process to reach a final agreement.

“We continue to be unclear as to what OFNHP hopes to accomplish with this strike,” Adams said. “But what we do know is the union’s decision to strike has an impact on our patients, our caregivers, our physicians and our community.”

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 4,600 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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Grand Rounds - Feb. 26, 2021
"Strategies to Shorten the Long and Winding Road to Accurate IPF Diagnosis and Effective Management"

Speaker: Mary Beth Scholand, MD. Associate Professor of Pulmonary Medicine Director, Interstitial Lung Disease Clinic University of Utah

Objectives

1. Differentiate idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) from other common ILDs, such as connective tissue disease ILD (CTDILD),accurately and efficiently using recommended clinical evaluation, radiologic testing, and pathologic testing as needed.
2. Apply evidence informing the use of antifibrotic therapy, nonpharmacologic strategies, and management of risk factors and comorbidities in patients with IPF to formulate treatment plans.
3. Individualize treatment of IPF based on patient characteristics and preferences, using shared decision-making.

Accreditation: Paradigm Medical Communications, LLC is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Paradigm Medical Communications, LLC designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^TM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. This activity is supported by an educational grant from Genentech, a member of the Roche Group.

Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. For questions regarding CME credit, visit the Paradigm Medical Communications website or contact the Paradigm CME Department at (845) 398-5949 or [email protected]

Target Audience: Physicians, Nurses, Pharmacists, Allied Health Professionals

Accessibility/Program Questions: St. Charles Health System encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Continuing Medical Education at 541-706-4680, [email protected]. For CME or Clerkship questions, contact Sheila Jordan, MMGT, CHCP, Manager of Continuing Medical Education at 541-706-6780, [email protected].

St. Charles responds to OFNHP strike notice

BEND, Ore. – St. Charles Health System was disappointed to receive a 10-day strike notice from OFNHP today for a strike of indefinite duration beginning March 4. OFNHP represents about 150 technical employees at the St. Charles Bend hospital campus.

“We are in the midst of a pandemic where St. Charles and all of our caregivers have been at the forefront of treating our community members with COVID-19. Our organization is also deeply involved in running large-scale community vaccination clinics for three counties alongside our Deschutes County partners,” said Aaron Adams, president of St. Charles Bend and Redmond. “While this strike notice cannot slow our efforts to meet these critical community needs, it just adds new – and unnecessary – challenges when our community needs us most.”

The timing of this notice is completely inconsistent with what OFNHP has been asking of St. Charles. As recently as Saturday, the two parties were in discussion with a federal mediator to see if new dates for bargaining could be set in addition to the March 10 date that is already scheduled. The mediator offered dates on March 3, 4 or 5, which were under consideration when the strike notice was delivered. Because OFNHP has chosen to strike, St. Charles will now be required to direct its time to strike preparation rather than negotiations and will be unable to meet during the notice period.

The St. Charles bargaining team has been waiting since Dec. 3 for OFNHP to respond to its last negotiation offer. St. Charles and OFNHP have met 28 times to negotiate the first-time contract – 23 of them during a global pandemic.

“While the surge in COVID-19 cases over the past few months has made it difficult to continue bargaining with full bargaining teams, we have invited OFNHP to provide a comprehensive response via email or over the phone. OFNHP has not chosen to do so,” said Rebecca Berry, vice president of Human Resources for St. Charles Health System. “If OFNHP believes that progress is not being made, it needs to look at its own decisions. We were concerned enough about the lack of progress that we suggested bringing in a federal mediator and OFNHP agreed. Now, OFNHP has issued a strike notice without ever meeting with a mediator even though it had already agreed to the specific date of March 10 for our next session. We don’t understand OFNHP’s strategy.”

Because St. Charles leaders are concerned that OFNHP is bargaining in bad faith – and in doing so jeopardizing the patients in our community – the health system plans to file an unfair labor practice charge of bad faith bargaining with the National Labor Relations Board so that these concerns can be fully addressed.

“Again, we reiterate our disappointment in OFNHP’s decision,” Berry said. “St. Charles will take all necessary steps to ensure that care for our community continues in a safe and uninterrupted way.”

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, Madras, Prineville, Redmond, Sisters and La Pine. St. Charles is a private, not-for-profit Oregon corporation and is the largest employer in Central Oregon with more than 4,600 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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Grand Rounds - Feb. 19, 2021
"The Oregon Wellness Program: A Statewide, Voluntary, Confidential, Cost Free Approach,Serving Healthcare Professionalsin Distress"

Speakers:

• Donald E. Girard, MD, MACP. Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, School of Medicine, OHSU
• Archie Bleyer, MD. Clinical Research Professor, Radiation Medicine, The Knight Cancer Institute Oregon Health and Science; University Professor of Pediatrics, McGovern Medical School; The University of Texas Collaborator, Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington

Objectives

1. Identify why burnout occurs
2. Describe the consequences of burnout and COVID-19 on health care professionals
3. Describe the Oregon Wellness Program
4. Evaluate outcomes to date

Accreditation: St. Charles Health System is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. St. Charles Health System designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)^TM.

Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Claim Credit

Target Audience: Physicians, Nurses, Pharmacists, Allied Health Professionals

Accessibility/Program Questions: St. Charles Health System encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Continuing Medical Education at 541-706-4680, [email protected]. For CME or Clerkship questions, contact Sheila Jordan, MMGT, CHCP, Manager of Continuing Medical Education at 541-706-6780, [email protected].

Today, we have 17 patients at the St. Charles Bend hospital who are sick with COVID-19.

This isn’t the highest number of hospitalizations for the virus in Central Oregon, nor is it the lowest. But many of these patients have been quite sick, which is an important reminder for all of us about how important it is to continue avoiding catching or spreading COVID-19.

Case counts in all three Central Oregon counties are much lower now than they have been in recent months, but it is still absolutely critical that we continue to follow safe public health practices. Please be diligent about hand washing, masking and distancing – especially with new, more contagious variants of the virus spreading throughout the country. Vaccinations will also greatly help to reduce the incidence and severity of the virus, but access to vaccine supply remains a challenge.

To see how our St. Charles campuses throughout Central Oregon have pitched in to care for all patients throughout the pandemic, take a look at our latest video.

Vaccine news

In the latest on the vaccine front, our tri-county effort continues at the Deschutes Fair & Expo Center, where we are actively providing second doses to thousands of Central Oregonians. This morning, we opened up scheduling for 1,000 first doses to be administered Sunday, and by this afternoon, those were already completely full.

The good news is that the state has issued a new vaccine allocation plan and we will be adding new appointments to the schedule each week. Going forward, we expect Deschutes County to announce information on appointment availability on Fridays, with scheduling opening on Saturdays. To ensure you receive those announcements, we suggest connecting with the county's communication channels. And to be clear, this is a tri-county effort, so this information applies to residents of Crook and Jefferson counties as well.

I want to emphasize this: As they did today, these vaccine appointments will fill up quickly. If you miss out one week, please don't fret. More will open up in the following weeks. You'll have more chances to get an appointment. And we will repeat this process until everyone who wants a vaccine gets one.

If you are eligible to receive a vaccine, you can also check our St. Charles website for appointments at any time. If you need help registering online, refer to this video tutorial. A hotline is available for support from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. The number to call is 541-699-5109.

In addition, the federal retail pharmacy program is now underway. While St. Charles and our partners at the county public health departments are not responsible for this program, we do encourage Central Oregonians to regularly check the following websites for appointment availability:

• Albertsons/Safeway: http://www.safeway.com/pharmacy/covid-19.html
• Costco: https://www.costco.com/covid-vaccine.html
• Healthmart: http://www.healthmartcovidvaccine.com/

Each pharmacy is only receiving about 100 doses per week at this time, so appointments are likely to fill fast.

Finally, many primary care providers are now approved by the state of Oregon as vaccine administration sites. This includes our St. Charles Family Care clinics. This week we are administering 50 first doses to eligible patients through our St. Charles Family Care clinic in Madras. The clinic staff is reaching out to eligible patients directly to set up appointments. Please do not call the clinic to request an appointment as we do not want the phone lines to be overwhelmed.

As you can see, there is a lot of effort going into making as many vaccines available as possible throughout our region. Thank you, again, for your patience, understanding and willingness to help our health system fight COVID-19.

Sincerely,
Joe

Understanding Total Joint Replacement | Recorded Seminar

Replay of the community seminar from May 2023 with Drs. James Hall and Connor King at Tykeson Hall, OSU Cascades Campus. The lecture includes information on the following topics:

• Diagnosing Arthritis
• History of Joint Replacement
• Treatment Options Before Joint Replacement
• What’s New and Hot in Joint Replacement
• What to Look Out for to Avoid Problems with Joint Replacements
• Surgical Procedures
• Computer Assisted and Robotics
• What Activities are Safe to do After Joint Replacement
• Benefits of Outpatient Total Joint Replacement

Grand Rounds - Feb. 12, 2021
"Updates on the Evolving Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak"

Speaker: Shira Shafir, Ph.D, MPH, Director, MPH for Health Professionals Department of Community Health Sciences, Director of Field Internships Department of Epidemiology, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

Objectives

1. Describe the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic
2. Describe current best practices concerning personal protective equipment (PPE)
3. Understand where to find additional information and resources as this outbreak continues to evolve

Accreditation: St. Charles Health System is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. St. Charles Health System designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)^TM.

Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Claim Credit

Target Audience: Physicians, Nurses, Pharmacists, Allied Health Professionals

Accessibility/Program Questions: St. Charles Health System encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Continuing Medical Education at 541-706-4680, [email protected]. For CME or Clerkship questions, contact Sheila Jordan, MMGT, CHCP, Manager of Continuing Medical Education at 541-706-6780, [email protected].

As the COVID-19 vaccine distribution process continues to evolve, it is important to me that you continue to receive accurate and up-to-date information.  

Please know that while St. Charles is helping in every way we can to distribute vaccines to our Central Oregon communities – we are partners in the process and are only one piece of a much larger puzzle.  

Vaccine distribution starts at the national level. The federal government decides how many vaccines each state will receive each week. In Oregon, we have been receiving about 100,000 doses per week of first and second doses for the entire state.  

From there, the Oregon Health Authority decides how many vaccines to send to approved vaccine distribution sites throughout the state. Those sites include county health departments, hospitals, primary care clinics, pharmacies and other health care providers who have gone through a state application process.

At the local level, we are following the state’s guidance on groups of people who are eligible to receive the vaccine. Our three Central Oregon counties were able to quickly vaccinate the majority of those in the first phases and moved ahead of the state’s schedule for a period of time. Now that we are receiving a smaller number of first doses from the state, we have had to slow down our distribution. This week, Deschutes County received only 1,200 first doses and made the decision to distribute those doses mostly to primary care providers for administration to their patients in the senior population who are eligible. Jefferson and Crook counties also received a small number of doses that they are handling through their clinics.

It remains our hope that we will receive another large allotment of vaccine so we can continue our large-scale vaccination efforts at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center in the coming weeks. The Oregon Health Authority is working on a new vaccine allocation plan and we expect to receive those details early next week.  

For now, the best thing you can do is register at https://vaccine.deschutes.org to be notified when you are eligible and to receive regular updates.  

We greatly appreciate your patience as we continue to do our best to vaccinate our population as quickly as possible.  

Sincerely,  

Joe

BEND, Ore. — The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) has notified St. Charles Redmond that all COVID-19 tests in the previous 14 days related to the Redmond outbreak resulted negative, prompting the agency to lift the COVID-19 “outbreak” status of the hospital.

The health system’s investigation of the outbreak, which was traced to 28 people including 25 caregivers, revealed the source was a COVID-positive patient. 

Though the outbreak has resolved, many of the changes instituted at the Redmond hospital remain in effect, including:

• Increasing air exchanges to at least six times per hour, and even more frequently in patient rooms 
• Increasing air filtration to more than the CDC recommendation (+90% filtration at .3 microns) 
• Instructing caregivers who are within an arm’s length of a patient with respiratory symptoms for more than 15 minutes to use N95 respirators and eye protection throughout their shift while the outbreak is ongoing 
• Adding hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies to more locations throughout the facility 
• Asking caregivers to eat in the cafeteria or on the outside patio rather than in break rooms to create a larger space between caregivers when their masks are down
• Reducing maximum capacity in all break rooms and conference rooms to ensure physical distancing can be maintained 

Starting Wednesday, visitation restrictions will be lifted to allow one visitor per patient, per day.

“I have been impressed by the commitment and resilience of the Redmond community, caregivers, patients and their families to come together and comply with enhanced restrictions so we could resolve the outbreak as quickly as possible,” said St. Charles Redmond Chief Nursing Officer James Reedy. “We have learned lessons that we will continue to practice.”

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.