As a health system and the largest employer in Central Oregon, we want you to know we stand with our communities for equity and inclusion of all.

Our nation is hurting – and we know that many of you are hurting as well.

We can’t stay silent and simply watch the news of the past week. It is critical that you know we do not tolerate racism. We do not tolerate violence. We do not tolerate ignorance of these issues.

It is time to do better.

St. Charles has a more than 100-year legacy that started with a brave group of nuns declaring they would care for all or care for none. However, although we strive to provide health care to all those in need – we know disparities continue to exist for many of the populations we serve.

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has put a spotlight on this issue by disproportionately affecting communities of color throughout the nation. In Oregon, our African American, Hispanic and American Indian populations have been hit as well – we are not immune.

St. Charles should be a safe place for all regardless of race, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation or ability to pay. While we have taken some positive steps – including our cultural care programs in Madras and our sexual orientation and gender identity workgroup – we know it is just the beginning of an ongoing journey to learn and to improve upon our own understandings and practices.

We as a St. Charles leadership team vow to investigate where our organization may be falling short, to engage in conversations with our diverse populations, to listen, learn and improve. We also commit to educating ourselves to better understand these issues through diversity training and will continue to look for opportunities to better reflect our communities.

We owe it to the communities we serve — and ourselves — to do the important work of really understanding each other. Now is the time to see our differences from one another and not fear them, but instead embrace and learn from them.

We must do better.

Please, take this moment to check in with your fellow caregivers. Ask them how they are doing and what they are feeling. Connect with and support each other through these turbulent times.

Remember, when people are in pain, our job is to heal.

Sincerely,

St. Charles Executive Care Team

Joe Sluka, Chief Executive Officer
Jeff Absalon, Chief Physician Executive
Jenn Welander, Chief Financial Officer
Iman Simmons, Chief Operating Officer
Darren Binder, Chief Legal and Risk Officer
Rod Marchiando, SVP Improvement and Strategy
Jim Guyn, SVP Population Health
Pam Steinke, Chief Nursing Executive
Rebecca Berry, VP Human Resources

June 9, 2020

As our Central Oregon counties continue to work through the phases of reopening for business and recreation, I’ve had a lot of people ask me recently, “What now?”

To many, it feels like COVID-19 is over.

The news has rightfully moved on to cover the senseless death of George Floyd and the unrest that has occurred across the nation in its wake. Let me say here and now that St. Charles stands in unity with our communities to support equity and inclusion for all. We do not tolerate racism. We do not tolerate violence. We do not tolerate ignorance of these issues or the inequities in the nation’s health care system that have perpetuated systemic racism.

Our St. Charles leadership team vows to investigate where our organization may be falling short, to engage in conversations with our diverse populations, to listen, learn and improve. We also commit to educating ourselves to better understand these issues and will continue to look for opportunities to better reflect our communities.

I believe it is also critical that we understand the racial tensions we are seeing across the nation are not separate from the COVID-19 pandemic. In many areas communities of color have been hit hardest by the virus and this disparity has added to the collective pain of this moment.

We can and must do better to serve all.

Our next normal

While our attention has turned and our appetite for staying the course has waned, it is still very important to remember that nothing has actually changed with the virus. On Sunday, the state of Oregon had its highest one-day number of positive COVID-19 cases reported since the pandemic began. We continue to see positive cases of COVID-19 in Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties.

Four people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Bend. We have not had this many COVID-19 hospitalizations at St. Charles since mid-April.

Of course, we expected to see hospitalizations increase as reopening began and know that navigating these ups and downs is part of what we at St. Charles are now calling our “next normal.” We know that the more people interact, the more likely it is the virus will spread. But, we also know how important it is to remain cautious in our behavior.

You can continue to help your community by doing these four things:

• Practice good hand hygiene – This means washing frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and if you can’t, please use hand sanitizer.
   
• Physically distance from others – This one is really hard, but it does make a difference if you can continue to stay at least six feet away from those not in your immediate family.
   
• Wear face coverings when in public – This is such an important way to protect yourself and others while also supporting our businesses in their effort to reopen and stay open.
   
• Seek care in the right location –
  • If you're sick with cold- or flu-like symptoms, stay home to avoid infecting others and contact your primary care provider for advice. However ...
  • If you're experiencing an emergency or need to seek services at one of our facilities, please know that St. Charles is a safe place for all your health care needs. Our Emergency Departments, Immediate Care clinics and Family Care clinics are all set up to ensure safe care. This includes screening at entrances, separate spaces for suspected COVID-19 patients and virtual visits, which allow you to be seen by your provider from the comfort of your home.

Please watch and share our latest video with these tips with your friends and family.

Thank you for your continued support as we all work through these very trying times together.

Sincerely,

Joe

May 18, 2020

As our Central Oregon counties start the phased approach to reopening, I can’t help but think back to the first messages I sent you in the early days of the pandemic. The advice today is much the same as it was then – stay home if you are sick, cover your cough or sneeze and wash your hands.

It feels a little like we’ve come full circle after having been through so much.

At St. Charles, our caregivers have shared a mix of emotions with me about their thoughts on reopening. Some feel the time is right, that you have helped flatten the curve and that we can handle whatever comes next.

Still others are worried. They have noticed people not wearing masks in public places and not staying six feet away from others. For many of our frontline health care workers, this behavior is deeply concerning.

Today, I have a request: For your safety and ours, I ask that you follow the guidelines from our local health departments and the Oregon Health Authority.

You have the power to ensure our reopening does not result in a spike of COVID-19 cases. You can choose to take care of yourself and others by making a few small sacrifices:

• Wear a mask or cloth face covering when in public
• Stay home if you are sick and report your symptoms to your primary care provider
• Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for 20 seconds
• Practice physical distancing of at least six feet from people
• Be a model of this kind of behavior and encourage others to do the same

Thank you for continuing to support all of our essential workers – and the safe reopening of our local businesses – through your actions.

While we continue to see a number of positive COVID-19 test results in Deschutes and Jefferson Counties, as of this writing we have only one COVID-19 patient in our Bend hospital, which is great news.

As we work to bring our own operations back toward normal levels, it feels like the time is right to scale back these communications as well. We want the information shared to be meaningful and useful, so I will plan to send updates less frequently unless the situation changes.

I’d like to thank you all for reading, for responding with your questions and for your notes of gratitude and support throughout this journey. Your messages have helped me make it through the most difficult days. You have shown me time and again that we are all in this together.

Thank you,  

Joe

As I soaked up the wonderful weather over the weekend, I couldn’t help but think how this springtime perhaps more than any other represents regrowth. At the same time the physical world around us is bursting back to life, we are tepidly transitioning to a new season of this pandemic, one in which we may slowly start to resume some of those familiar aspects of our lives.

But just as the handoff between winter and spring can be a variable mix of sun and sleet, what comes next in the COVID-19 story may feel similarly jarring.

While the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Central Oregon is now low, we don’t know if it will stay that way. We don’t yet understand if this virus will behave like the flu, allowing us to anticipate its resurgence, or if the social distancing measures we keep in place moving forward will be enough to prevent localized outbreaks. We can’t reliably predict when a vaccine will be available and—absent one—how long this virus will have to circulate before we have sufficient herd immunity.

With so many questions still unanswered, it’s critically important that we responsibly manage the phased reopening of our communities. St. Charles is committed to helping do that. Gov. Kate Brown has announced the limited reopening of some state parks, outdoor recreation facilities and natural areas throughout the state. And starting Friday, she said, counties whose reopening plans are approved by the Oregon Health Authority can unshutter some of their local businesses, including restaurants, personal service businesses and stand-alone retail.

As part of this process, St. Charles experts have actively worked with officials in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties to provide important data as they develop their reopening plans. A county’s eligibility to reopen is in part contingent upon the local health system’s capacity to handle another surge in patients. Thanks to your efforts to “flatten the curve,” which bought us time to expand our acute bed capacity, stockpile more personal protective gear and provide more testing, we can confidently say we’re prepared to take care of our community.

At the same time our counties are planning their recovery, so are we. Some of our services are beginning to resume, albeit not at the same levels as before. Starting today, we will be performing more elective surgeries at our hospitals, taking care of more patients whose care has been delayed. Our Home Health team is working in tandem to care for more patients as a result of the higher volume of surgeries.

Still other services keep evolving. St. Charles Medical Group clinics are encouraging patients to continue preventive care through video, phone and email visits—and the results are encouraging. In February, only 106 patients “saw” their provider via a phone visit (and none by video). By April, more than 6,200 patients had visited with their provider over the phone and another 3,500 via video.

As we ease back into public life, St. Charles and our local health departments will be working closely to monitor the prevalence of the virus, as well as those other benchmarks that indicate our ability to handle an outbreak. If the situation changes, so will our response.

At the same time, we are also committed to supporting our local economy. Just like Central Oregon was here for St. Charles when we needed the support most, we will be here for you as you begin to navigate the choppy waters of reopening. We’re still having conversations with our business leaders to understand what that may look like and how we can best help, but I assure you we are going to play a role in helping our local businesses safely reopen—and stay open.

We owe it to you.

Sincerely,
Joe

May 4, 2020

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, St. Charles has maintained its focus on our top priority of keeping our patients, caregivers and communities safe. Part of that included strong messaging about staying home.

But in recent weeks we have noticed a concerning trend that has also been reflected in many other areas of the country. During the month of April, emergency room visits across all St. Charles hospitals were down about 42% compared with our normal April volumes. What’s more, our cardiology team has indicated it is seeing about half the normal number of heart attack patients.

While we would be heartened if the decrease in the need for emergency and cardiology services was the result of an uptick in the health of our community, we are concerned that people may not be seeking the care they need out of fear of COVID-19. I want to reassure you that St. Charles hospitals and clinics are safe places to receive care. As Dr. Jeff Absalon, our chief physician executive, explains in this video, we’ve taken a number of steps to minimize your risk of exposure and help you feel comfortable during your visit.

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT REOPENING 

St. Charles leaders have been involved in conversations at the state and local levels about reopening plans in recent weeks. We understand the many concerns about high unemployment rates in Central Oregon and the devastating impacts COVID-19 is having on our local economy.

As a health care organization, our first priority must be to protect the health of our patients, caregivers and community. We are providing data to our local and state elected officials so they can make informed decisions about how and when to reopen businesses in a safe way. This includes regularly reporting our levels of personal protective equipment (PPE), monitoring new cases of COVID-19 and sharing our bed capacity and any concerns related to staffing. In addition, when the timing is right, we would like to work with our public health partners to provide local businesses with support, training information and resources to help them feel confident that they can open slowly and safely.

At the same time, we continue to work with our providers and caregivers to slowly expand our own capacity to provide more health services in alignment with Governor Brown’s orders. And we are actively reviewing our visitation policy to determine when and if we can begin to relax it.

UNIVERSAL MASKING

COVID-19 has changed our lives in innumerable ways and it is important to remember the reasons we are making these sacrifices:

• COVID-19 is a deadly virus that continues to circulate in our communities and for which a vaccination or effective treatment may not be available in the near future
• Fourteen cases have been identified in Jefferson County while Deschutes County has had 79 positive cases and Crook County has had 1 positive case
• Health care workers continue to take risks to care for others and we have a responsibility to protect them along with the most vulnerable among us

For these reasons and more, St. Charles has instituted a universal masking protocol. All caregivers are required to wear a mask while at work at a clinical location regardless of their position. All patients and visitors are also required to wear masks when entering our facilities. If you have a cloth mask at home, we encourage you to bring it with you to your St. Charles visit.

We are able to enact this policy, in part, because of the generous donations of cloth masks from our community. We have received more than 15,000 donated cloth masks and have been able to ensure every member of our St. Charles team has two cloth masks to wear in and out of our buildings. We are continuing to collect cloth mask donations and – thanks to you – are now able to donate the surplus to our community partners who are in need.

Sincerely,
Joe

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.

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

Last week, a patient celebrated her 95^th birthday while admitted to our Progressive Care Unit at St. Charles Bend. Because of visitor restrictions, her family sadly couldn’t be with her on this special day.

Instead, our social workers, nurses and many other caregivers stepped in to help. They brought her a piece of carrot cake and even served her a martini with three olives – essentially fulfilling her dying wish. They sang “Happy Birthday” while holding up a cell phone so her children and grandchildren could sing along.

The next day, the patient passed away. 

“It means the world to me what the frontline team did,” her son wrote in a note of thanks. “They are risking their families to help families like us and at the same time give comfort and compassion when it’s time. For that I am truly grateful.” 

This is just one of thousands of stories like it taking place across the globe. Health care workers, first responders, public health caregivers and so many more are going above and beyond to not only treat the sick, but to be there for important moments when patients’ loved ones can’t.

Introducing the St. Charles Hero Fund

To acknowledge the many sacrifices and honor the risks our caregivers are taking, last week we launched the St. Charles Hero Fund. 

The fund will provide bonus pay to caregivers who work on the front lines for the month of April. To be eligible, caregivers must work in direct patient care or on-site at a St. Charles clinical location for at least 80 hours this month.

St. Charles caregivers in our hospitals, clinics, home health and patient support areas come to work every day knowing that even with taking appropriate precautions they could contract this serious virus. They provide essential care, while having to worry about potentially bringing home COVID-19 to their families. I am in awe of their heroism and honor the sacrifices they are making to care for others during this crisis.

To kick-start the fund, I am donating 50% of my paycheck during this timeframe to support our caregivers. I hope you will join me in contributing whatever amount you feel comfortable to do the same. To learn more about the St. Charles Hero Fund or to make a donation, please visit our website. Our goal is to raise $1 million from our community as a match to $1 million in support from St. Charles. You can help us get there.

The latest on the COVID-19 front

At this time, St. Charles has the lowest number of inpatients with COVID-19 we have had in the past two weeks. We have just four positive COVID-19 patients at St. Charles Bend and none of them are in the Intensive Care Unit.

This is great news and simply would not have been possible without your efforts to stay home and save lives. It is working.

New projections released by the Oregon Health Authority yesterday estimate that together we have prevented as many as 18,000 COVID-19 infections and 500 hospitalizations because of social distancing measures throughout the state.

Isn’t it extraordinary to think you have saved lives simply by staying home, spending more time with your families, playing board games, watching Netflix and taking a breath from the busyness of life?

Of course, I realize none of this is easy. Parents are juggling working from home while also trying to be educators to their children. Businesses are suffering from the loss of revenue and closed doors. And, we are all afraid to go to the grocery store or even walk too close to a neighbor if we aren’t wearing a mask.

Yet, I know we will get through this together as long as we keep it up. The good news is encouraging. It means our efforts are making a difference. Please stay strong and continue to stay the course.

Sincerely,
Joe

You're saving lives by staying home

Since my last message went out a week ago, hundreds of you have shared your words of thanks, encouragement and support. It means more than I can say that you find our information helpful during this time when we all must come together to face the common threat of COVID-19.

Your words and actions continue to give me hope that we will come through this together and we’ll be stronger as a community when we reach the other side.

Our team has noticed some trends in the questions we receive – through our telephone hotline, email responses, social media posts and more. Here are some of the themes and the best answers we have as of today.

TESTING

Access to widespread testing – for anyone who has symptoms or has been exposed to COVID-19 – would greatly help us identify and isolate potential patients in an effort to stop the spread. Unfortunately, from the beginning of this crisis we have faced a nationwide shortage of testing supplies and barriers in the turnaround time for test results.

Our team is working on this issue every day. Early on, our suppliers put us on an “allotment” of test swabs – meaning no matter how many we order, they will only provide us a certain, smaller number in an effort to share supply across the country. The allotment changes depending on the available supply. 

Now that new testing options are being approved by the FDA, we’ve had regular contact with our state and federal legislators along with the manufacturers in an effort to secure these new types of tests for Central Oregon. So far, most of the testing supply is going to areas of the country that are hardest hit by the COVID-19 outbreak including New York, Washington, California and Louisiana.

To date, the St. Charles Laboratory has sent out only 907 tests for COVID-19 – far too few to know the true extent of the virus in our communities. Because we believe that testing more people is a critical component of this fight, we will continue to push this issue until it is resolved.

PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE)

Even before we had any cases of COVID-19 in Oregon, our Supply Chain team was actively monitoring the worldwide shortage of critical personal protective equipment (PPE) for our caregivers. More than 50% of the world’s surgical masks are produced in Chinese factories that were shut down for nearly two months at the beginning of the outbreak. We knew that even if COVID-19 never reached us, we would still face a PPE crisis.

Our teams moved quickly to address the problem early on. We purchased our entire allocation of supplies and encouraged our staff to reserve as much supply as possible while still staying safe. We monitor the rate at which we go through supplies based on our number of patients. We know exactly how many days of every type of PPE we have on hand.

Because of ongoing turmoil in the worldwide mask market, the valiant efforts made every day by our Supply Chain team to secure more PPE do not always yield results. This is a frustration shared by our fellow hospitals throughout the state.

In the meantime, we have embraced the innovative spirit of our Central Oregon family. Thousands of masks have been donated – cloth masks, plastic face shields, respirators and more. Your generosity continues to help us stay safe. Thank you.

SOCIAL DISTANCING – STAY THE COURSE

While we continue to identify new positive cases in Central Oregon – including the first positive in Crook County last week – it appears social distancing efforts are having an important impact. The more we continue to STAY HOME, the better off we will be in the end. In fact, our data scientists believe your efforts to stay home have likely already saved several Central Oregonians from death due to COVID-19.

What you are doing matters – but you have to keep it up!

This article from the New York Times shows how mobility has dropped throughout the United States in recent weeks. Quite simply – the further you travel, the farther the virus can spread. Every day that you avoid others, you are making a difference in our ability to care for the patients hit hardest by this disease.

Please also watch this video from Dr. Nathan Ansbaugh, an emergency room physician at St. Charles Bend, explaining why it is so important to stay the course with social distancing. We are starting to see improvement, but now is not the time to take a knee – it is the time to double down on our efforts. Thank you for staying strong.

Sincerely,

Joe