It was almost exactly two years ago that a team of St. Charles caregivers began planning and preparing our response to the arrival of COVID-19 in Central Oregon.

Two years later, our hospitals are experiencing what will be the most dramatic surge of COVID-positive patients of the pandemic so far, thanks to the Omicron variant.

Our caregivers know a lot more about the disease and how to treat it than they did two years ago. They also have more tools to protect themselves from COVID-19 than they did back then, including vaccination.

Still, they need your help. This surge will fill our facilities beyond capacity, and we need you to do everything you can to stay out of our Emergency Departments and our hospitals over the next few months, unless you are having a true medical emergency or you really need to be there.

One way you can avoid the ED is by avoiding those pesky wintertime slips, trips and falls that happen when the ground gets icy or snowy. As we all saw early this month, one big storm can make getting around town very treacherous.

At St. Charles, we remind our caregivers throughout the winter of nine simple tips to help keep them upright when it’s slippery outside. Here they are:

1. Walk like a penguin: Take short, flat steps to maintain balance.
2. Wear appropriate footwear for the weather.
3. Give yourself more time to get places.
4. Exit your car with both feet on the ground.
5. Don’t carry too much. Hands free and arms out for balance.
6. Resist shortcuts. Use paths that have been cleared.
7. Ditch distractions (like your phone) and focus on walking.
8. Consider using traction cleats on your shoes.
9. Remove snow and ice from your shoes when you enter a building.

Those nine tips don’t only apply to St. Charles caregivers, of course. They apply to everyone, and that includes you.

So this winter, support our health system and our incredible caregivers by staying upright and avoiding slips, trips and falls – not to mention a trip to the hospital. You’ll be glad you did, and so will we!

Sincerely,
Joe

For most people, New Year’s Eve is a time for celebration and remembrance, for noisemakers and midnight kisses, for swaying together and singing “Auld Lang Syne.”

The caregivers on the Cash Management crew in St. Charles’ Single Billing Office, however, are not “most people.”

Cash Management is a team of 12 caregivers who are responsible for, among other things, taking payments made to the health system – from insurance companies, outpatient clinics, gift shops, cafeterias and so on – and posting those payments to the appropriate accounts.

“All monies that come into St. Charles, we are the hub for that,” said Terri McCreary, the team’s supervisor. “We work with Finance to get that money in the system and posted to a patient account or to the general ledger – wherever it needs to go.”

Thanks to the general cadence of accounting work, the end of each month is a rush for the team as it works to get as many payments posted as possible. That rush is heightened on Dec. 31, when reducing the health system’s accounts receivable by end-of-year is a top priority, McCreary said.

“I watch the numbers closely throughout the day,” she said. “We want to see how low we can go with what is unposted.”

The job all but precludes partying on one of the world’s biggest party nights. In fact, McCreary brings up the possibility of working New Year’s Eve when she interviews prospective hires.

“I tell them, ‘You might have to work till midnight on New Year’s.’ That’s always a possibility,” she said. “And with the people on the team, we start talking about it Dec. 1: ‘Don’t forget you’re working!’”

The caregivers on McCreary’s team not only remember, they embrace the assignment.

“My family always watches (football) on New Year’s Eve, so I was prepping everybody that this year’s going to be a little different for me,” said Amber Buhmann, one of the newest members of the team. “But I was also really excited. (That day), we were all sending each other messages and getting each other pumped up about getting through the day. It made it fun.”

People who work in the field of finance get used to working hard at the end of months and quarter, said payment posting Specialist Lead Stephanie Sapp, but year-end is “super exciting” as the Cash Management team works hard to post every payment it possibly can.

“We want to make Terri proud,” said Christy Vermillion, echoing a sentiment voiced by several of her colleagues. “We have a goal and we want to make that goal. It’s important to us.”

It’s important to the health system, too, said Jan Haverly, who has worked for St. Charles for 25 years.

“We’re not at the bedside, but it’s kind of our job to keep the doors open by making sure the money is where it belongs,” she said. “If we’re not putting the money where it belongs and where the auditors are going to say, ‘Yes, that’s right,’ then that’s a problem for the whole system. We keep the doors open so our people can take care of the community.”

A simple change in practice is making a big difference at St. Charles, both financially and environmentally.

The change can be traced back to St. Charles’ partner for anesthesia care, the Bend Anesthesiology Group (BAG), where last year, a handful of providers formed a committee charged  with improving the practice’s environmental stewardship and sustainability.

Dr. Holly Graham is a member of that committee. She said the group is interested in exploring ways to increase energy efficiency and to reduce the volume of plastics used by BAG providers during their procedures. But in the world of anesthesiology, there is one particular piece of “low-hanging fruit,” she said, when it comes to improving sustainability: Reducing the use of anesthetic gases such as desflurane.

“Studies show that desflurane is horrendous for the environment, and there are things we can do to change that,” Graham said. “There’s so much evidence behind it that we felt like this would be a good place to start as far as trying to make a difference.”

Desflurane is one of two gases most commonly used as a general anesthetic for human beings. The other is called sevoflurane. Both are inhaled by patients, who only metabolize less than 5% of the gas. The rest is exhaled into the operating room, where a ventilation system sucks it in and then pumps it out of the hospital through the roof.

The problem is that inhaled anesthetics are potent greenhouse gases. Up to 5% of all health system-related greenhouse gas emissions – and 50% of emissions from surgical services – have been attributed to inhaled anesthetic pollution.

“The intersection of health care and environmental sustainability is a very up-and-coming topic,” Graham said. “It’s becoming very important and it’s not going away.”

According to a study, desflurane stays in the atmosphere for 10 years, compared with 1.2 years for sevoflurane. Authors of that study also calculated that desflurane has about 26 times the global warming potential of sevoflurane.

In recent years, many providers at BAG have preferentially used desflurane, Graham said. Given the environmental detriment of the gas, she and the environmental committee targeted the issue as a potential place to affect positive change.

At about the same time, Debra Carlson, who oversees pharmaceutical purchasing for St. Charles, was looking to move the health system to a different provider of anesthesia gas. Her primary goal was to reduce costs, though she knew switching from desflurane to sevoflurane would be much better for the environment.

“I brought it up as an opportunity to change who we hold the contract with, and that’s how we started talking about our inhaled gas usage,” Carlson said. “From there, it came together pretty easily. The (BAG) providers are the ones who wanted to take on a trial.”

Graham and the environmental committee presented the information about desflurane to their colleagues and asked them to spend the month of May 2021 either limiting or completely eliminating the use of the gas. Then, they could compare the carbon emissions for the month to May of 2019 to see exactly how much difference the move would make.

“What we found is that we were able to decrease our carbon emissions for all cases by about 54%. It was pretty shocking to see,” Graham said. “The biggest thing was just educating my colleagues. Once everyone understood the implications of using desflurane, they started making that change on their own.”

In fact, Graham found that some BAG providers had made the switch a few years ago, after NPR published a story about a Portland anesthesiologist who’d led a similar effort at his practice. One of the BAG providers, Dr. Erin Zurflu, called switching from desflurane to sevoflurane “a no-brainer” for a number of reasons.

“I made the switch the day I read that article. I haven’t used desflurane again, and I haven’t missed it. I found a reasonable and safe alternative and I think my patients are happy with it,” Zurflu said.

“And when it came time to educate the other providers about this,” she continued, “we showed them the data about the environmental impact, and we also said, ‘You know, this will save (St. Charles) a lot of money, because desflurane is quite a bit more expensive. Why don’t we do it proactively and show them that we care about the environment and that we’re good partners at the same time?’”

As a result of the change, St. Charles has so far saved more than $90,000 just in the cost of gas, Carlson said. The health system will also save money by reducing from 22 to six the number of vaporizers needed to administer desflurane. Those vaporizers cost about $90,000 per year to rent, Carlson said.

In a typical year with normal surgical volumes, changing out the machines would have been difficult. But thanks to COVID-19, surgical volumes were lower than usual, which gave St. Charles a chance to make the move, Carlson said.

“We were coming to the end of our contract, we saw a window of opportunity and we said, ‘Let’s just do it,’” Carlson said. “We caught this at the right time.”

To be clear, desflurane is still available for use at St. Charles, in part because some providers believe it is preferable for some patients, Graham said. But it’s available in a much more limited capacity, and BAG providers are committed to only using it when absolutely necessary, she said.

“This is a passion that I have, to want to make a difference in the world that we’re leaving for future generations,” she said. “This is one place where we could do that, and I’m just so pleased that my colleagues have rallied behind this. Once they saw it was a problem, they stepped up and it feels good that we’re making a difference.”

For me, the end of the year is a time for looking back. It’s a time for celebrating accomplishments and savoring success stories, recognizing challenges and reflecting on the journey of the past 12 months.

At St. Charles, any reflection on 2021 must begin with the COVID-19 pandemic. From the rollout of a vaccine to a major fall surge fueled by the Delta variant, every step of the past year has been taken in the shadow of this deadly virus.

We are not finished in our battle against COVID-19, but we have made significant progress toward a new normal. We helped set up and staff a mass community vaccination clinic in Redmond that, by all accounts, ran smoothly and efficiently. (A parade of volunteers certainly helped.) We introduced a promising new treatment that has kept many COVID-positive people out of the hospital. We set up drive-thru COVID-19 testing and a pediatric COVID-19 vaccination clinic. And, of course, we have cared for right around 2,600 patients with COVID-19 at our Bend hospital. There are 24 there as I write this, including three in the Intensive Care Unit.

Our caregivers did all of that while also dealing with unprecedented patient volume and capacity issues at our hospitals – issues caused not just by COVID, but by a confluence of factors.

I am so incredibly proud of our St. Charles caregivers for their hard work and dedication to the communities we serve – always, but especially over the past two years. Without them and their tireless efforts, none of the above could have been possible. It is my honor to lead this organization.

And I must take a moment to thank our friends in the Oregon National Guard, as well as a fleet of traveling nurses, for coming to Central Oregon to support us in a time of great need. They made a huge difference, and we are forever grateful for their help.

Of course, St. Charles is not just a COVID-19 response operation. It is a robust and wide-ranging health system that covers an area approximately the size of South Carolina and serves an array of very different people with a wide range of health care needs. So, we cannot focus solely on COVID-19. Every day, we must be making progress on a number of different fronts, and we did that, too.

For example, we expanded the availability of industry-standard 3D mammograms to Jefferson County, giving women in Madras and Warm Springs better care that’s closer to home. And thanks to state-of-the-art technology, we launched a virtual reality training program for our caregivers and made major improvements to the way we treat breast cancer.

We supported our community partners in many different ways: A donation to help buy new ambulances for Crook County. A collaborative project to study the effect of shift work on the health of Deschutes County sheriff’s officers. A major contribution to Partners in Care’s push to build a new hospice facility in the region. We provided nearly $50,000 to various organizations in the area that are working to prevent the misuse of alcohol, which is our current community benefit priority. And through the St. Charles Foundation, we gave more than $65,000 in grants to local schools, cities and nonprofit organizations that are helping to meet the critical needs of individuals and families and working to prevent or end homelessness and break the cycle of poverty.

Rest assured, that is just a sliver of the good work happening across St. Charles Health System, in Bend, La Pine, Madras, Prineville, Redmond, Sisters and points beyond and in between. Our caregivers are out there every day, working hard to help improve the health and the lives of people in our community.

Again, I am incredibly proud of them and their work. And I thank you for your partnership in our primary goal: Creating America’s healthiest community, together.

I hope you have a healthy, happy 2022.

Sincerely,
Joe

It’s been two and a half years since St. Charles Health System expanded its Bend hospital, opening a new patient tower that houses a 24-bed Intensive Care Unit, a 28-bed Progressive Care Unit and open space for future development.

The $66 million addition would’ve been critically helpful in normal times. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the past 18 months have been anything but normal at St. Charles Bend.

“This tower was badly needed even before COVID,” said Monica Schulz, who manages the Bend ICU, which moved out of a cramped and outdated space when the hospital expanded. “The fact that it was completed and opened just months before the pandemic – well, that turned out to be absolutely crucial timing.”

As soon as it opened, the three-story tower helped alleviate some of the Bend hospital’s ongoing capacity challenges, which stem from a number of factors, including Central Oregon’s fast-growing population. In 2018 alone, the Bend ICU was forced to transfer nearly 100 patients to other facilities for care because of lack of space. Moving into the new tower resulted in a net gain of 33 patient beds, and transfers plummeted in 2019 and 2020, Schulz said.

By early 2020, however, officials at St. Charles were preparing for COVID-19, and the importance of the new patient tower came clearly into focus, Schulz said.

“When we looked at the potential impact of the virus on our facility and our caregivers, it was really obvious that the features we had built into the ICU and the PCU were going to be vital as we worked through this pandemic,” she said. “It has been a learning experience, but the bottom line is our hospital’s response to COVID-19 benefited greatly from the new tower.”

The spacious, state-of-the-art tower has strengthened St. Charles’ COVID response in a number of different ways:

Increased capacity
Throughout the pandemic, the Bend hospital has housed hundreds of COVID-positive patients, ranging from a handful at any given time up to 100 during the recent surge caused by the Delta variant. Many of those patients spend time in the PCU, and the sickest are placed in the ICU, so the added beds in both units have been much-needed – especially considering that the sickest COVID patients often stay in the hospital for weeks.

“We’ve been running at capacity or beyond for many weeks now,” said Debbie Robinson, the hospital’s chief nursing officer. “It has been a constant challenge trying to take care of everyone who comes through our doors, and I can’t imagine how much harder it would’ve been without our new units in the tower.”

Flexibility throughout the hospital
Officials at St. Charles Bend work hard to optimize patient flow throughout the hospital by reducing bottlenecks and placing people where they can receive the most appropriate care.

An important tool in that effort is the hospital’s new Short Stay Unit, which provides patients who will stay for less than 24 hours a place to recover. With 17 new patient rooms, shared space and a central location within the hospital, the SSU is shortening wait times, increasing safety and alleviating capacity concerns in the Emergency Department and elsewhere.

Better patient experience
The rooms in the ICU and PCU are about 44% larger than they were before the expansion – large enough to accommodate more friends and family as well as larger teams of caregivers. They also feature large windows that allow in a lot of natural light, and many offer an excellent view of the Cascade mountains. Special design elements such as “nurse servers” – drawers accessible from both inside and outside rooms – allow caregivers to stock needed items without disturbing patients.

And while visitors have been restricted during the pandemic, caregivers discovered an unanticipated benefit of the new space: COVID patients at end-of-life could be taken out of their rooms to a patio area so their loved ones could be present in their final moments. “That has been such a gift, to give family a chance to say goodbye in a meaningful way,” Schulz said. “We’ve had at least 20 patients pass away out there, and that would not have been possible in the old ICU.” (Unfortunately, the Delta variant ended this practice, she said.)

Improved visibility
A multi-disciplinary group of St. Charles caregivers spent many hours planning and designing the new ICU and PCU in an effort to provide the ideal care environment. Today, that effort comes to life in the units’ nursing stations, which are located in a central area between patient rooms, with windows placed specifically to give caregivers direct line-of-sight to patients. In other words, nurses can easily keep an eye on all their patients at all times.

“This has been especially important during the pandemic, when we need to try to consolidate our trips into patient rooms in order to save time, energy and personal protective equipment,” said Don Jacobs, manager of the PCU. “In the old space, nurses’ computers were on rolling carts in hallways, with limited visibility into the rooms. This is such a huge improvement that protects both our patients and our caregivers.”

Also protecting caregivers: The new ICU’s lift system for transport of heavy patients. As of November, the unit has had only a couple of caregiver injuries resulting from lifting patients, even though patients with COVID-19 require regular “proning,” or turning over from their back to their belly and back again. “That is all manual work,” Schulz said, and the lifts have “helped immensely.”

More rested caregivers
In the old space, caregivers needing a break had to hole up in a small office or walk through the hospital to find a quiet spot. The new tower is fitted with “respite rooms” that provide tired caregivers with kitchen facilities, plenty of space, large windows and mountain views.

“We are always telling our people, ‘Take care of yourself so you can take care of this community,’” Robinson said. “That’s not just something we say, it’s something we believe, because it’s absolutely true. We need our caregivers to be rested and ready to handle whatever comes their way, and those respite rooms give them a wonderful place to go and reflect and recharge.

“That’s always important, and it’s become even more important over the past couple of years,” she continued. “I know everyone here is grateful for that space and for all the many ways this new tower has helped us navigate these challenging times.”

In mid-August, Sgt. Jerimiah Mangum of the Oregon National Guard traveled to Bend from his home in Newport. He had no idea how he’d be spending his time in Central Oregon, nor did he know how long he’d stay.

“When we come into a situation like this, we’re just here to help,” he said. “So we try to arrive with an open mind.”

Mangum’s unit, the 116th Cavalry Brigade, had been deployed by Gov. Kate Brown to help rural hospitals with the worst surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Aug. 19, he arrived at St. Charles Health System’s Bend hospital for his assignment: to work as a screener at one of the facility’s entrances.

He’s done that almost every day since – nearly three months of small talk, screening questions, hand sanitizer and infrared thermometers, plus people who are appreciative of his service and people angry about the hospital’s requirements for entry. (More of the former than the latter, Mangum says.)

He enjoyed the social aspect of door screening, he said. But he especially enjoyed working at the entrance near the St. Charles Cancer Center, where he built a rapport with people who visited the center frequently.

“We saw cancer patients who would come in every day and after a while, you form a relationship with these folks. You get to know them and see them progress through their treatment,” he said. “Just in the short time I’ve been here, I’ve seen people finish their treatment, and that’s pretty cool, to share that experience with them.”

Mangum is just one of about 150 Guard members who’ve worked at the four St. Charles hospitals over the past three months. The vast majority live outside Central Oregon and have been living in local hotels while they carry out their mission: to do jobs that St. Charles needs done and that allow the health system’s clinical caregivers to focus on caring for patients.

Besides providing screening at entrances, soldiers have cleaned rooms and work areas, delivered food and transported patients, said Lt. Col. Kyle French of the Oregon Air National Guard, who leads the team that oversees the deployment from a logistical standpoint. French, who works for a tech company and lives about two miles from St. Charles Bend, said the Guard has worked closely with St. Charles management to put troops into positions where they can succeed. Seeing them succeed has been a highlight of the assignment, French said.

“These are good people who do what they’re asked to do and they do it well,” he said. “I’m retiring soon, so this is kind of one last big job for me to do, and it’s been really rewarding knowing that we’re doing good work and we’re helping the community.”

As it is for French, the deployment comes with some personal fulfillment for Staff Sgt. Daniel Egbert, who lives in Salem but was born in Redmond and grew up in La Pine. His stepmother retired from St. Charles after her nursing career, he said, and his brother’s girlfriend works at St. Charles Prineville. A member of the 641st Aviation Unit, Egbert has been working for the health system’s Environmental Services unit, which means he has cleaned rooms and nurses’ work stations “so they’re able to do their job the best they can,” he said.

Egbert called his time at St. Charles “a blast,” thanks largely to the relationships he has built with his coworkers and his attitude and approach to the job, which have been shaped by 22 years in the Guard.

“I’ve learned that each different situation that you’re put into, it’s what you make of it. If you go in feeling like it’s going to be bad, you’re going to have a bad time. If you go into it to have fun, you’re going to have fun and the time’s going to go by quickly,” Egbert said.

“And it’s special being back here where I grew up helping my community,” he continued. “We’re here to support the community in any way we can, and when you can tell you’re doing that, it just makes it that much better.”

On Monday, Nov. 15, the number of deployed Guard members across St. Charles Health System will drop from 72 to fewer than 40. Those soldiers, who have worked side-by-side with St. Charles caregivers since August, will remain on assignment across the health system for a few more weeks. Here is a collection of comments from St. Charles leaders about the troops and their work:

“Nicholas has supported us at our COVID drive-up since the National Guard was deployed to help us. I would like to acknowledge how amazing he is to work with. He is always positive, in every interaction – even in our extreme temperatures, high (>100 degrees F) and low (17 degrees F). He has helped our seasoned phlebotomist develop standard verbiage to successfully collect children with a positive outcome. I have received many compliments from parents stating their children had such a great experience. He calls himself the Booger Hunter and the kids love it!

He is excellent at de-escalating situations, professional, very respectful, supportive and my go-to person that I can count on in any condition or situation. He will be very much missed!”

- Lura Wilhelm, manager of outreach and pre-analytical services

“Redmond Inpatient Services would like to recognize Tran and Grace for their recent service to the Redmond hospital. Tran is the epitome of professionalism and positivity. He completed every task with enthusiasm and regularly checked in with leadership throughout his shift when there was downtime looking for more ways he could support. He is accountable and diligent, even calling the manager at home one Sunday to make sure we knew he had a mandatory meeting to attend on Monday and wouldn’t be on site. He was so wonderful with our sitter patients, often sitting inside the room having meaningful interactions. He will be sorely missed! Grace has also quickly become a valued member of our team. She eagerly volunteers to take assignments all throughout the hospital, including challenging patients in the ED. She stays on top of call lights and is a great resource to our team. We are excited that she will remain with us a bit longer!”

- Melissa Smith, manager of inpatient services, Redmond

“I just wanted to tell you about an awesome worker from the National Guard named John. He caught on to the transport job very quickly and has been so great at it. We had an elderly patient with scabies and lice and he even volunteered to get her while being very caring towards her.”

- Jennie Trtek, radiologic technologist

“Chris worked this past weekend sitting with a confused and impulsive dementia patient. He was very compassionate and had a calming effect with this patient. When he was not needed at the bedside, he graciously answered the call lights which was very helpful. In addition, Chris has been asked to move from the Emergency Department to Food Services on several occasions and each time he is willing and always with a smile. Chris’s attitude and kind demeanor is always so appreciated.”

- Kira Buresh, quality and value improvement specialist, Prineville

“We have had the pleasure of having Josh work with our team on the Surgical unit. He has been helpful in every way possible. Josh is flexible, hardworking, a team player and open to new and ever-changing tasks. He has been a calming presence for patients at times when they are agitated. He does N95 mask fit testing, stocking supplies, moving equipment and PPE, giving rest breaks to sitters and even being the ‘sitter’ when we did not have adequate staffing. Josh does all of this and more with a pleasant attitude, determined to offer assistance wherever needed. He has been very valuable to our unit. It is an honor to have him here!”

- Sarah Creson, charge nurse, Surgical Specialty, St. Charles Bend

John, Tyler and Cole have supported us at our COVID drive-up since the National Guard was deployed to help us. I would like to acknowledge John’s hard work and dedication. He was always dependable, honorable and a great person! I also appreciate all of Tyler’s work and support he has given us. He was always kind to everyone, coworkers and patients alike! Finally, I would like to acknowledge Cole’s unwavering support of our operation. He is a great leader, he is respectful and he has great follow-through. I knew I could always count on him, even in the extreme temperatures we experienced during his time here. All three will be missed!

- Lura Wilhelm, manager of outreach and pre-analytical services

Every year, Veterans Day is special. It’s a time to recognize and appreciate those who have served in our country’s military – those who have protected us, who’ve kept peace around the world and who’ve fought for our freedoms.

At St. Charles, Veterans Day hits close to home this year, thanks to the 150 or so members of the Oregon National Guard who have been working in our hospitals over the past couple of months.

Their help has been invaluable. They have cleaned rooms and made beds, delivered food, screened people at entrances, and generally done the jobs that need to be done in order to keep a hospital running smoothly. You can read more about their work here.

More importantly, they have done the jobs that allow our caregivers to focus on providing our patients with the best possible care. And they’ve done it all gladly, without questioning the need or the importance of the tasks they were given. That’s the military mindset: Give them a job and they’ll do it, and do it well. Show them a gap in resources and they’ll fill it.

I know I speak for our caregivers when I say that being able to call on dependable people who’ll capably handle whatever work comes their way has been absolutely critical over the past few months as we have weathered the biggest surge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I also must acknowledge the sense of pride and gratitude that I have felt in recent weeks any time I encountered a person in uniform on a St. Charles campus. Their mere presence has been a good reminder of our commonality as Americans, the restorative power of serving others, and that we are stronger together than apart.

That is what the Oregon National Guard brought to St. Charles. Not just helping hands and feelings of relief, but a spirit of servanthood that has buoyed our health system in extremely challenging times.

We are forever grateful to them.

And to all Veterans out there: Thank you for your service. You represent the best of us.

Sincerely,
Joe

St. Charles Foundation will host a hybrid version of its 30th annual Hospice Christmas Auction from Nov. 22 to Dec. 11. Beautiful handmade quilts and elaborately decorated trees—along with other auction items—will be on display in locations around Prineville and available for online bidding.

This year the Foundation partnered with local businesses in Prineville to publicly display the trees and quilts. Starting Monday, Nov. 22, the trees will be on display at various Prineville businesses, while the quilts will be on display in the community room of the historic Bowman Museum. The online auction opens for bidding Friday, Dec. 3 at 6:30 p.m. and ends at noon on Saturday, Dec. 11. Funds raised will provide crucial support services for St. Charles Hospice patients and their families.

Online registration is encouraged prior to the event.

For more information on the Hospice Christmas Auction, go to HospiceAuction.org or check out the Facebook page at @SCFHospiceAuction.

As you may have heard, we recently announced updates to our facility access policy for all St. Charles locations, including our four hospitals, all clinics and other locations. Starting Oct. 18, anyone who is not a patient will only be allowed inside our facilities if they provide acceptable proof that they are fully vaccinated or if they meet some specific exceptions. Please know that this decision was made for the safety of our patients, caregivers and communities.

It is no coincidence that the effective date aligns with the deadline for health care workers to be fully vaccinated, as mandated by the state of Oregon.

There are exceptions for visitors to people in comfort care, children, babies in our NICU and patients in our Family Birthing Center, as well as those who serve as support persons as defined by Oregon state law. We’re also making exceptions for law enforcement, emergency responders and other workers who may need to enter a facility while on duty. You can find more information here.

Since we announced this policy update, we’ve heard feedback from many of you – some angry about the new visitor guidelines, and some appreciative of the steps we are taking to protect our patients and caregivers. Going to the hospital or the doctor’s office is an emotionally charged time for many people, and we understand that. Visitors and support people play an important role in a patient’s healing process, and we understand that, too.

But the fact remains that we are in the middle of the most serious surge of a global pandemic that has killed nearly 5 million people worldwide, and that number is still rising. Locally, September was the deadliest month of the pandemic yet in Central Oregon, with 56 deaths attributable to COVID. Our hospitals are full, and people who need surgery and other treatments can’t get the help they desperately need. Our incredible caregivers are tired and stressed and stretched thin. Unvaccinated children are still at risk, leading to regular quarantines from school because of this disease. The list of impacts goes on and on.

None of this is normal. And because we aren’t yet back to normal, St. Charles must continue to be vigilant about controlling the spread of COVID-19 in our facilities. As our chief physician executive, Dr. Jeff Absalon, said recently: We owe that to our patients, many of whom are medically fragile, and to our caregivers, who put themselves at risk every day to care for the people of Central Oregon.

Making this change is not something we take lightly. A multidisciplinary team of experts spent many hours working through every line of our visitor policy to ensure we are doing the right thing for the health system and for the community.

That’s what drives everything we do at St. Charles, and sometimes that means making tough decisions. This is just the latest in a series of tough decisions over the past two years.

I hope they’ll start getting easier soon. In the meantime, please stay safe.

Sincerely,
Joe

When Marilyn Cornelius woke up Aug. 16 with a stuffy nose, she thought she knew the cause.

“It was just after a particularly smoky weekend, so I figured it was the smoke,” the 56-year-old Sisters resident said.

But then she lost her sense of taste and smell, and Cornelius feared she had contracted COVID-19.

She was right.

“I went to get tested and that was the morning they were reopening drive-thru testing at St. Charles. They were literally setting up the tents when I arrived,” she said. “Sure enough, it came back positive, which was a bummer, because you try to do everything right but you still get nailed.”

Cornelius was vaccinated against COVID-19 in February, practices social distancing in public spaces and masks up when she feels she should. But by that night, she was isolated in her home, still not feeling terrible, but still without her senses of taste and smell.

The next morning, Cornelius received an email informing her that she had a new message in MyChart. It was a chart note from St. Charles Family Care Dr. Carey Allen advising her that she qualified for monoclonal antibody (MAB) therapy, a treatment for people with mild-to-moderate symptoms of COVID-19 that helps keep people from getting sicker and having to be hospitalized.

“I immediately started Googling it and went, ‘Oh yeah, I want this,’” Cornelius said.

Since July, St. Charles has provided MAB therapy for more than 900 COVID-positive people. Among those, just 2% were eventually hospitalized, as compared to an 8% hospitalization rate for all COVID-positive patients at the health system. And hospital stays are shorter for patients who’ve received monoclonal antibodies – four days, as compared to nearly seven for all COVID-positive patients.

“What we’ve found is that monoclonal antibody therapy, when administered at the right time, really works,” said Dr. Cynthia Maree, infectious disease specialist for St. Charles. “It’s the only outpatient treatment we have for COVID right now, but the good news is that it limits the severity of illness, keeps people out of the hospital and helps them feel better faster.”

To be clear, Maree said, MAB therapy should not be considered an alternative to vaccination. Getting vaccinated is still the best way to protect yourself and others against COVID-19, she said.

Cornelius is walking, talking proof that pursuing the treatment can make a difference. The day she learned she qualified for MAB therapy, she started having trouble breathing and her heart began pounding, she said.

“That’s when I realized, ‘Wow, this is how people die of COVID,’” she said. “I was really struggling that night and just felt so glad that I was vaccinated and that I had this treatment on the horizon.”

The next day, Cornelius spoke with her primary care physician, who referred her to St. Charles. (Patients cannot self-refer for MAB therapy. They must be referred by a physician.) And then one day later, she went to St. Charles Redmond to receive the infusion. Generally speaking, the treatment takes a couple of hours, including time after the infusion for observation and recovery.

Cornelius received her infusion on a Thursday evening. By Saturday, she said, she was feeling much better.

“If you didn’t know I’d had it, you wouldn’t have been able to tell,” she said. “And then on Sunday and Monday, my senses of taste and smell came back.”

Cornelius credits monoclonal antibody therapy – along with “therapeutic doses” of vitamins and elderberry, she said – with “getting (her) over the hump” and on the road back from COVID-19.

“I 100% think it boosts your recovery,” she said. “I don’t even want to think about what might’ve happened had I not seen that MyChart note and talked to my doctor about it. That one bad night I had was scary, and you see so many stories about people who think they’re getting better and then suddenly, they take a turn for the worse.”

With the Delta variant spreading rapidly in Central Oregon and more people contracting the virus every day, Cornelius has a simple message: “If you do test positive, don’t assume that you don’t qualify,” she said. “Ask your doctor and find out because it’s going to help you get better.”

Learn more about monoclonal antibody therapy at St. Charles.