FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   |   April 30, 2020

Bend woman the first COVID-19 patient in Central Oregon to receive convalescent plasma transfusion

BEND, Ore. – A 53-year-old Bend woman hospitalized at St. Charles Bend with COVID-19 is the first person in Central Oregon to be treated with convalescent plasma.

Liliana Locke, who was admitted April 21 and is in the Intensive Care Unit on a ventilator, was transfused Wednesday.

Considered an investigational new drug by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), convalescent plasma is a blood product collected from individuals who have previously been diagnosed with COVID-19 and have subsequently recovered.

The frozen convalescent plasma was flown to Bend Wednesday via commercial air from Bloodworks Northwest in Seattle, which had a unit of plasma that was a match for Locke’s blood type.

Dr. Anna Dolezal, a pathologist with Central Oregon Pathology Consultants and acting medical director of the St. Charles Blood Bank, said the convalescent plasma contains antibodies to COVID-19 and it is hoped that transfusing these antibodies to severely ill patients with COVID-19 will help their body be able to better fight the disease.

“However, at this point, it is experimental,” she said. “The efficacy in COVID-19 infection is still unknown, but convalescent plasma has been helpful in treating other viral infections in the past and we’re hopeful that it may be similarly helpful in COVID-19.”

Use of convalescent plasma has been studied in outbreaks of other respiratory infections, including the 2003 SARS-CoV-1 epidemic, the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza virus pandemic and the 2012 MERS-CoV epidemic, according to the FDA.

St. Charles Bend was able to provide the convalescent plasma as part of a national expanded access protocol coordinated by the Mayo Clinic and the FDA. The goals of the program are to help clinicians have access to COVID-19 convalescent plasma for patients with severe and life-threating COVID-19 infection, and to add to the national knowledge of the safety of convalescent plasma. Initial data available from studies show that a single dose of 200 mL showed benefit for some patients, leading to improvement.

Given the severity of the pandemic and lack of other available treatments for COVID-19, the FDA approved its use as an investigational new drug in late March. Since that time, blood suppliers, such as Bloodworks Northwest, the American Red Cross and others have been working tirelessly to increase the pool of available plasma. But the demand has continued to outstrip the supply. That’s largely because in order to be eligible to donate, individuals be at least 28 days out from their initial COVID-19 test and 14 days symptom-free. As time goes on and more people across the country recover from COVID-19, the pool of available plasma is expected to continue to grow.

“The effort to get convalescent plasma to Central Oregon has been a multidisciplinary effort involving the laboratorians and clinical researchers and treating physicians of St. Charles,” Dolezal said. “They’ve all worked collaboratively to help bring this potentially life-saving resource to our community.”

Craig Ohlin, Locke’s husband, said her condition quickly worsened after she was diagnosed.

“It was maybe only four days and it was time to go to the hospital. It was quick,” he said, adding that Locke had no underlying health conditions. “Now that I hear what’s going on with her lungs, I’m blown away by what [COVID-19] can do to someone.”

Ohlin said he’s hopeful the treatment will make a difference, but he has been told by doctors it may be several days before they know. 

“I have a lot of faith and that’s what I’ve got to run on,” he said.

Dolezal would like to see convalescent plasma be made available to more COVID-19 patients with a severe or life-threatening infection and is hopeful that as the supply increases the medical community will be able to transfuse plasma to patients earlier in their hospital course.

“I would encourage people in our communities who have recovered from COVID-19 infection to consider donating this potentially life-saving product,” she said. “And if you have not had COVID-19, please consider becoming a blood donor as the need for lifesaving blood products is always ongoing in our community.”

To schedule an appointment to donate COVID-19 convalescent plasma or other blood products, contact American Red Cross Blood Services at 1-800-RED-CROSS or https://www.redcrossblood.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, 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 4,200 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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For the past several weeks, I’ve been sending out an email on Mondays detailing St. Charles’ efforts to prepare for and respond to the COVID-19 outbreak and to care for our community through unprecedented times.

If you’d like to read those emails, here’s an archive. And if you’d like to sign up to receive future missives, you can do that here.

My Monday emails tend to be long and full of information, because there is a lot to say. I’ve written about our work to expand COVID-19 testing and our plans to handle a surge of patients. I’ve emphasized the importance of social distancing and urged people to follow Gov. Kate Brown’s stay-at-home order. I’ve shared the latest data models and discussed the development of a roadmap for recovery.

I also try to take an opportunity in each email to say “thank you” to whoever’s reading for whatever role that particular person has played in the fight against this dangerous new virus, whether they're working face-to-face with patients, ringing up groceries at the supermarket or simply staying home and helping to flatten the curve.

Here, though, I want to take a moment to be more specific with my gratitude. There certainly is enough to go around.

Thank you to our partner agencies, both locally and at the state and federal levels, with a special kudos to health officials in Warm Springs and at Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties, who have capably pursued the important work of identifying COVID-19 cases, conducting contact investigations and providing valuable guidance for our communities. And to the firefighters, emergency medical personnel and law enforcement officers on the front lines, thank you for putting your own health at risk for the good of Central Oregon as a whole.

Thank you to the St. Charles Foundation for quickly establishing our new Hero Fund, which will benefit frontline caregivers at St. Charles, and for making the 2020 Heaven Can Wait 5K a benefit for COVID-19 relief efforts. It is never easy to ask people for money, but ultimately, donating money is the best way to help our efforts and our caregivers. (Heaven Can Wait is going virtual this year, by the way. Sign up here.)

Thank you to the many businesses and individuals across Central Oregon and beyond that have donated non-medical items and services such as food and drink over the past several weeks. Yes, our caregivers need personal protective equipment, proper training, strong leadership and emotional support along the way. But I can tell you that when a stack of pizzas shows up at the hospital these days, it is greeted with open arms and giant smiles. Simple things matter.

Thank you to the essential workers who are out there risking their own health to ensure our society continues to function as normally as possible. Times of crisis tend to illuminate the occupations that play an indispensable role in the world as we know it, and that’s certainly true right now. To the delivery drivers, postal employees, cashiers, gas station attendants, garbage collectors, retail workers, those on the food-supply chain and all others doing jobs we depend on: We appreciate you and we value your work.

Thank you to the vast army of skilled sewists across the region who have been busily crafting cloth masks for caregivers at St. Charles and other health care providers. On April 1, we announced our 10,000 Mask Challenge in hopes of collecting enough masks to give our people two each. Just over three weeks later, we surpassed that goal, and we’re still going so we can share with others. What an incredible thing it has been to watch this group mobilize and focus its efforts on helping the folks on the front lines.

Last but certainly not least, thank you to the 4,500+ caregivers at St. Charles Health System who have worked tirelessly over the past few months as we engage in an uncertain fight against an invisible enemy that doesn’t seem to play by the usual rules. My full-hearted gratitude goes to the doctors and nurses, of course, but also the pharmacists, respiratory therapists, medical techs, lab scientists, food services workers, environmental services staff, facilities crew and so many more in other support areas who keep our hospitals running smoothly. Thanks also to the administrators at St. Charles, who have spent countless hours setting up new services, honing policies, updating processes, pursuing solutions to new problems and otherwise supporting those on the front lines. We are not done yet, but for now, please know that I could not be more proud to lead such a terrific organization.

Finally, if you’ve read this far, thank you for taking the time to understand what’s happening at St. Charles and how our operation intersects with Central Oregon in this challenging time. It is vitally important that members of this community get their information from trusted sources so we’re all working from the same page and pulling in the same direction.

I’ve said it in my Monday emails and I’ll say it here: We are truly all in this together. Thanks for doing your part.

Sincerely,
Joe

In the past week, my wife and I have received hundreds of incredibly kind messages from our community expressing condolences on the loss of my father-in-law due to COVID-19.

I can’t tell you how much it means to both of us. We have honestly been overwhelmed and humbled by the response and are so thankful to each of you for taking the time to write, for sending flowers and plants and for reaching out with your thoughts.

All of it has helped to make this difficult time a little easier to bear.

I feel similarly about knowing St. Charles has such a supportive community standing behind us as we work together to get through this pandemic.

Overwhelmed.

Humble.

Grateful.

While we have had some positive test results this past week, our number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients remains low. We know this is because of you. Your social distancing efforts and sacrifices continue to make a difference.

Expanding services safely

Our team has been working on a plan for several weeks to ensure we are ready to start providing expanded health services in a safe way when the time is right. On Thursday, Gov. Kate Brown announced that she is relaxing her executive order and will allow hospitals to provide some expanded non-urgent health services as of May 1.

This is good news for our patients who have been waiting for needed surgeries. We know the delay has caused anxiety, pain and distress and we are very much looking forward to being able to provide you needed care. St. Charles has a panel of experts reviewing surgery requests that will evaluate which procedures should move forward first. We appreciate your patience as we move through this important process.

It is also critical to note that if we start to see an uptick in COVID-19 cases in our community, or we start to run low on supplies, we will take a step back. Re-opening for services will be a cautious process over the coming months as we consistently evaluate the safety of our team, our patients and our community.

A word about testing

Finally, we continue to receive questions about testing and are pleased to share that we continue to expand our testing criteria to include more people. In addition to St. Charles clinics and hospitals, many of our partner clinics throughout our communities are also providing COVID-19 testing. Calling your primary care provider remains the best first step to determine if you are eligible for testing.

We have also received numerous questions about antibody testing. Our partners at Deschutes County Health Services are sharing this information on antibody testing with our communities:

Many individuals are seeking serological tests, more commonly called “antibody tests,” for COVID-19. According to the FDA, approved tests “detect the body’s immune response to the infection caused by the virus rather than detecting the virus itself.” They caution that antibody tests have limited effectiveness for diagnosing active infection and should not be used as the sole basis to diagnose COVID-19.

While many test developers are currently seeking FDA approval, there are few approved tests on the market. The FDA warns that “some firms are falsely claiming that their serological tests are FDA approved or authorized, or falsely claiming that they can diagnose COVID-19.” Currently, there are no FDA-approved antibody tests available in Central Oregon. If you are seeking an antibody test, whether locally or online, it is important to make sure it is FDA-approved.

In addition, the World Health Organization has indicated that it is too soon to know if recovered COVID-19 patients are immune to the virus, which makes it risky to rely on antibody information to relax social distancing measures. For these reasons, St. Charles is not offering or recommending antibody testing at this time. However, we will continue to closely monitor the situation and provide updates as more information becomes available.

The best we can do today is to continue practicing safe social distancing, good hand hygiene and wearing masks when we do need to go out in public. It is important that each of us continue to act as though we have COVID-19 ourselves and that every person we meet also potentially carries the virus – simply keeping this in mind and acting accordingly will reduce exposure and save lives.

Sincerely,

Joe

P.S. Here is a photo of just some of the lovely flower arrangements that have been delivered to our home in the past week. They have brightened our days. Again: Thank you so much for keeping my family in your thoughts.

Grand Rounds - April 24, 2020
"Boots on the Ground: How Frontline Providers Can Navigate Stress in the Time of COVID-19"

Speaker: Mary Meador, MD

Objectives:

1. Applying a brain-based understanding of what it means to be human when we feel stressed, anxious, or afraid.
2. Understanding the brain as a social organ.
3. Evaluating the paradigm of vulnerability as a weakness
4. Learn to embrace the strength that comes out of seeing ourselves and each other as somewhat flawed human beings, trying to do the best that we can in a very difficult situation.
5. Examine the differences in the neurobiology of empathy and compassion, and show that we can develop both with practice.

Accreditation: St. Charles Health System is accredited by the Oregon Medical Association 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.

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].

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   |   April 23, 2020

Gov. Kate Brown lifts restrictions on hospitals, making more elective surgeries possible

BEND, Ore. – Gov. Kate Brown announced today that her executive order limiting elective surgical procedures will be lifted May 1 provided that hospitals are able to meet certain COVID-19 preparedness criteria.

The change will allow St. Charles Health System hospitals and others around the state to slowly begin ramping up the number of surgeries performed, as long as the hospitals maintain an adequate supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) and maintain open-bed capacity at or above 20 percent to accommodate a potential surge in COVID-19 patients.

This is good news for Central Oregon patients who have been dealing with difficult health situations while waiting for a safe time to receive care. St. Charles received some shipments of PPE last week and currently has adequate critical resources on hand.

“We want patients and caregivers to feel comfortable and know that we will only expand the procedures we are providing as long as we can do so safely,” said Dr. Jeff Absalon, chief physician executive.

The governor’s new executive order also stipulates that, to start, hospitals will be able to perform up to 50 percent of their pre-pandemic volume and will be required to review and prioritize cases based on indication and urgency. Some surgeries that require critical resources will continue to be postponed.

While the governor characterized the change as an important move for Oregonians whose quality of life has been impacted by the delayed surgeries—and for hospitals and health systems who have seen their revenues decline—she cautioned that the state will monitor and adapt its guidance as needed.

“We’re only stepping onto the ice carefully and cautiously, one step at a time,” Brown said. “If we see a crack in the ice or find ourselves in a precarious position, we may need to pause.”

Since COVID-19 first appeared in Oregon, St. Charles hospitals have been performing up to 25 surgeries daily that were either considered urgent or fell within the exceptions of the governor’s prior executive order regarding elective surgeries. The kinds of surgeries performed varied, but all had the common caveat that a delay in moving forward with them would cause significant harm to the patient.

St. Charles formed a group of experts, called the Limited Elective Procedure Panel (LEPP), to evaluate requests for elective surgeries. The LEPP—which is led by clinical leaders throughout the health system—will remain in place to continue making decisions about which surgeries can be done.

“With the LEPP already in place, we have the infrastructure we need to review each case and decide which ones are appropriate given the new guidance from the governor,” Absalon said. “But overall, this is welcome news—it’s good for our patients who have been patiently waiting for the care they need, and it’s good for our organization, which will start to see some of its revenue return.”

Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Welander said since March 2, the health system’s revenue has declined by 41 percent. That drop is largely attributable to fewer surgeries and the resulting patient stays, along with a decline in patient volumes in Emergency Departments and outpatient clinics.

Like the governor, however, Absalon said the situation could still change quickly.

“If we let up on social distancing as a community too quickly, we absolutely do anticipate the potential for a second surge,” he said. “So, everything we do will have to be thoughtful and staged in such a way that we are able to keep our eye on this. It’s a dynamic process that will be adjusted based on what the prevalence of disease tells us.”

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 and Sisters. St. Charles is a private, not-for-profit Oregon corporation and is the largest employer in Central Oregon with more than 4,200 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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Breastfeeding Support Group

Mommy and Me breastfeeding support group is held every Thursday from 1-3 p.m. at the Heart and Lung Center conference room on the St. Charles Bend campus (2500 NE Neff Road, Bend).

Download Flyer

Grupo de apoyo para la lactancia

Breastfeeding Education -- Online Course

To make it more convenient for our patients, we offer a free virtual breastfeeding class you can watch anytime.

If you have any questions, please reach out to the instructor, Alicia Selby, RN, directly at [email protected].

At St. Charles, the effort to prepare for and respond to a local outbreak of COVID-19 extends far beyond the doctors, nurses, medical technicians and caregivers who provide food and environmental services on the front lines. It also includes pharmacists, lab workers, IT experts, administrators and even contracted vendors who specialize in a specific service that meets one of the health system’s needs.

Duane Smith is one of those vendors. For years, his West Coast Event Productions company has provided St. Charles with temporary tents, furniture, audio/visual support and special rental items needed to put on a successful event. The company has been in business in Portland for 40 years, and in Bend for 25 years, Smith said.

In fact, it was West Coast’s Bend-area manager, Kezia Steinmetz, and operations manager, Rick Jacobe, who forwarded Smith a recent email from St. Charles President and CEO Joe Sluka announcing the St. Charles Foundation’s new Hero Fund, which will provide bonus pay to frontline caregivers.

In that email, Sluka mentioned that St. Charles would donate $1 million to the fund, and that he himself would donate half his April paycheck in hopes of inspiring others to do the same.

It worked.

“It was so wonderful, I must’ve read it 10 times because I was so impressed and I wanted to make sure I understood it,” Smith said. “I called my management team and I said, ‘Look at this. Isn’t this great?’ Immediately my wife Pat said, ‘We need to match that.’”

The team – which also includes sales manager DJ Smith and director of sales Mike Gargiulo – quickly agreed to give back to St. Charles half its April revenue from tents the company currently has installed across the health system. With 12 tents at nine locations, the donation penciled out to right around $10,000.

“Every day I look at all these health care providers who are risking their lives and their families’ health, and I just can’t imagine the toll it’s taking,” Smith said. “I call them angels. They’re like angels caring for all those people who really need it right now.”

Smith said he hopes West Coast’s donation inspires other companies to give whatever they can to the effort.

“This is a time when every citizen around the globe must join together and share whatever they can,” Smith wrote in a letter to St. Charles. “From hope to prayer, from personal help to financial support or to have the will to stay home to fight this (pandemic).”

Childbirth Education - Online Course

This online course is free. If you'd like to attend an in-person class, please visit our Class and Events section.

As we have battled the COVID-19 crisis, a few of you have had the experience of knowing someone who has been afflicted with this disease. Some of you have already watched loved ones struggle to recover, while others have experienced devastating losses.

For me, that wasn’t the case until last Friday when COVID hit home.

We got the call early in the morning, from the other side of the country; my father-in-law was sick and in respiratory distress and was being moved to comfort care. It didn’t seem real as my wife had just talked with him earlier in the week. By late afternoon that day he was gone. This is a man that loved and was loved. I lost someone I considered a friend, father and one of my biggest supporters.

And for my wife … well … she lost her dad.

The best any of us can do during these times is hold those that are close to us a little closer and do our best to keep our Central Oregon family safe by protecting ourselves and those around us.

After watching news reports this weekend of people protesting throughout the country – and right here in Central Oregon – I understand the frustration is rising. You are tired of being stuck at home. You are tired of being out of work. You are worried about the future and also maybe a little skeptical about how serious this situation continues to be.

After all, COVID-19 cases in Central Oregon are remaining relatively steady and we have not reached a surge of patients that we can’t handle with our available hospital beds, equipment and staff. That’s because of the hard work our community has done in adhering to our social distancing guidelines. You have bought us precious time and we thank you.

But that doesn’t mean the storm is over.

As St. Charles data scientist Michael Johnson explains in this video – we’ve been really good at riding out the rocky weather in our tents. If we step outside now, the winds will still be blowing and we risk being right back where we started four weeks ago.

Most data-modeling scientists in the state agree that we have about a 10% detection rate for COVID-19. As of today, we have 65 positive cases in Central Oregon, which means there could be as many as 650 people who are (or who have been) infected and are circulating in the community. Many may not have any symptoms. 

While everyone wants to get back to work, relaxing our social distancing measures requires thoughtful planning and consideration to ensure we don’t throw ourselves right back into the eye of the storm.

A roadmap for recovery

Many leaders in health care and other industries have been evaluating how we start to go back to normal. We are actively making recovery plans that will help us ramp up in a safe way.

For hospitals, we are developing guidelines that will assist in resuming services including:

• Monitoring the availability of widespread testing for people suspected of having COVID-19
• Ensuring adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies for our facilities and providers
• Working with our public health partners to support thorough contact tracing for those with positive COVID-19 test results

In good news, St. Charles is receiving shipments of PPE supplies that will help protect our caregivers, although we must maintain our conservation efforts as well. In addition, we have added testing capacity. We now have a drive-thru COVID-19 specimen collection site at our St. Charles Family Care Bend East location. Patients still need an order for the collection from a provider and they need to call 541-699-5107 to make an appointment in advance.

We also recently began running COVID-19 tests in our St. Charles Laboratory in Bend for hospitalized patients. We can now turn these test results around in about 40 minutes and plan to expand this service to our labs in Madras, Prineville and Redmond soon. Expanding our capacity for testing has been one of our top priorities since this crisis began.

The more we identify where the virus has taken hold, the easier it will be to contain it.

We'll be alright

In the midst of all of this craziness and stress, what gets me through the long and tiring days is all of the words of encouragement and notes of thanks I have received from you. This past week, one of our patients wrote and performed a song for our caregivers with a simple, encouraging and important message – we’ll be alright.

Eli Ashley, member of local band Appaloosa, recently visited our Bend hospital with symptoms of a stroke. His wife wrote the following note to our care team:

"My husband, Eli Ashley, was admitted to the ER with stroke symptoms. While I couldn't go in with him, by all reports, every minute under your care was exemplary, especially commendable during this difficult time. He was discharged, came home and got up to record this song. It is very, very heartfelt from him, and he sends this out as a "thank you" to St. Charles, your ER and second floor staff, and to the others and to the people of our community: We'll Be Alright."

Please take a minute to watch Eli’s song and share it with others. We all need to remember that we are in this together.

Our St. Charles team continues to be here for you to provide a safe place to receive care – either through virtual visits in our clinics or for emergency health needs in our Emergency Departments. As we develop our recovery plans and look to the future, we need you to help us by following the Governor's order and staying the course we’re on right now.

The numbers may be low and you may be feeling restless, but make no mistake: It continues to be important that you stay home. The lives of our patients, our caregivers and our loved ones still depend on it.

Sincerely,
Joe

Grand Rounds - April 17, 2020
"Fine tuning diagnostic conceptualization skills: The Autism Spectrum Disorder"

Speaker: Kira Armstrong, PhD

Objectives:

1. Describe at least 3 characteristics in a child’s psychosocial family history and/or parents that can make it more challenging to recognize high functioning ASD
2. Identify at least 4 child characteristics and/or comorbidities that can “mask” ASD
3. Summarize at least 3 ways to change how one approaches diagnostic interviews and the assessment process to increase the likelihood of recognizing and “finding” high functioning children who have ASD.

Accreditation: St. Charles Health System is accredited by the Oregon Medical Association 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.

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].