Nurses at St. Charles Health System in Bend filed several new complaints with the Oregon Health Authority, claiming their hospital has failed to meet minimum standards for staffing.
In the complaints filed last Friday, the nurses allege the hospital failed to provide them with the required breaks and sufficient replacement staff. They also say the hospital failed to limit patient admissions when necessary, and it didn’t create staffing plans to address an overflow of patients.
In the complaints, nurses say the hospital failed to correct similar violations from a separate 2022 investigation related to required meal and rest periods.
Staffing issues at St. Charles have existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2017 and 2018, OHA investigated staffing complaints against St. Charles and found the hospital failed to provide enough nurses to cover one another during breaks.
The outside of the St. Charles Health System campus in Bend on July 26, 2022. Nurses at St. Charles say staffing levels at the hospital remain dangerously low.
Joni Land / OPB
The Oregon Nurses Association has also filed two unfair labor practice complaints, saying the hospital did not provide certain information needed for bargaining.
Joel Hernandez, the vice president of the Oregon Nurses Association at St. Charles, said nurses often work long hours and miss their scheduled breaks.
“These nurses are working their butts to progress these patients to get out of the hospital,” Hernandez said. “If you spread that nurse so thin, things get missed.”
Hospitals across the country are facing severe nursing shortages, and the trend is expected to worsen.
St. Charles said in a written statement on Monday that it hadn’t yet reviewed the complaints, but it was working to reduce turnover and hire new nurses. The hospital is trying to fill 84 nursing positions.
“St. Charles takes patient safety seriously and we strive to provide the highest quality care at all times,” said Julie Ostrom, a senior nursing leader at the hospital.
Although the hospital is hiring 84 positions, the nurses union said the total number of vacancies is well over 300.
Oregon Nurses Association spokesperson Kevin Mealy said OHA could take months to complete an investigation.
Many hospitals struggled with financial losses in 2022. Officials say the hospital lost more than $35 million last year. Those losses have resulted in turbulent changes in staffing across the organization. The hospital laid off 100 non-medical positions and eliminated 76 vacant positions in 2022. It later laid off two executives, as well.
Last month, St. Charles revealed it would cut back on travel nurse contracts, which are usually far more expensive than staffed nurses. The hospital currently has 99 travel nurses, compared to 153 in May 2022, a spokesperson said.
St. Charles quietly declared crisis standards of care last July, partly due to staffing shortages.
It’s not the first time St. Charles has faced such complaints. OHA has found the health system failed to meet staffing standards three separate times since 2017.
Hernandez said conditions for staff remain poor despite repeated interventions from the state. He said hospitals face no real penalties for these kinds of violations.
“We know we’re not staffing correctly, we know we’re not following the law,” he said.
Union representatives are pointing to a new bill that could change that. House Bill 2697 would require hospitals to set and follow new safety standards — and potentially face heavy fines for failing to do so.
The bill passed out of the Committee on Behavioral Health and Health Care and now awaits a hearing in Ways and Means.
St. Charles Chief Nursing Executive Joan Ching testified against the bill and told lawmakers she would have to close 92 beds in Bed and Redmond — 28% of the current supply — if lawmakers passed it.
Mealy said the bill’s passage would likely not apply to these current complaints, as it could take months or years to go into effect.