One of the greatest health care systems in Oregon could be crippled by the strike, which would be the biggest among health workers in the state’s history. Additionally, patients may seek care elsewhere as a result of the strike.
Although there have been nursing strikes in Providence as recently as last summer, the upcoming walkout would also be the first to involve roughly 70 doctors from Providence St. Vincent Medical Center who belong to a rare and newly established hospitalists union.
The strike plan was announced Monday by the Oregon Nurses Association, which represents nurses and other medical professionals at the Catholic nonprofit health system. Before going on strike, health professionals must give ten days’ notice.
Providence Portland, Providence St. Vincent in Beaverton, Providence Milwaukie, Providence Hood River, Providence Newberg, Providence Seaside, Providence Medford, and six Providence women’s clinics will all be affected by the strike.
After months of negotiations, workers and Providence were unable to come to an agreement, according to the union, which issued the strike warning.
While nurses at Providence Seaside and Providence Medford approved a strike earlier this month, the majority of healthcare workers endorsed one in October and November.
Concerns raised by workers include everything from overall working conditions to personnel levels and pay hikes. These concerns have persisted in the face of ongoing staffing shortages and became much more pressing during the pandemic era, which highlighted structural difficulties for frontline healthcare workers throughout the state.
Providence Oregon CEO Jennifer Burrows criticized the union in a statement for the lack of progress in bargaining discussions, saying that union negotiators issued contradictory signals in response to the health system’s proposals and were unwilling to compromise.
“To support our priority of ensuring we continue to provide excellent patient care, we have been transparent with union leaders that bargaining stops in the event of a work stoppage,” Burrows said. During this work stoppage, the focus of our leadership team will shift to community care.
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According to Burrows, Providence has found more ways to assist us in providing patient care as well as hired replacement staff. Employees who decide not to go on strike are free to report for work and will be given instructions on how to do so, she added.
Providence probably has to pay a high price for replacement staff. Due to a staffing shortfall, hospitals in Oregon and around the country have relied on traveling nurses, but they have had to pay a premium that has negatively impacted their bottom line.
According to Dr. Raymond Moreno, chief medical officer of Providence St. Vincent, the involvement of hospitalists and palliative care physicians at St. Vincent, along with physicians at six Providence women’s clinics, complicates the response of the health care chain.
According to Moreno, there isn’t a ready-made replacement workforce for doctors, unlike nursing, where there is experience with replacement labor. We have some backup plans in case all of our hospitalists are unable to report to work, so we’ve been considering how we’ll cover for them. We’ll probably need to make some changes.
According to Moreno, Providence may temporarily move certain doctors from other Providence hospitals to work at St. Vincent and the women’s clinics, or it may postpone some treatments.
According to him, Providence can also collaborate with other local hospitals, including as Kaiser Permanente, Legacy Health, and Oregon Health & Science University, to move patients into their care if necessary.
According to Moreno, Providence is concentrating on getting ready to care for the 456 patients at St. Vincent as of Monday, when the strike starts on January 10.
According to union leaders, they are still amenable to more talks and believe that a deal between the two sides might prevent a strike.
Negotiators continue to disagree on a variety of topics, including workforce levels, scheduling procedures, and compensation and benefits.
Since the fall of 2023, nurses at Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center in Oregon City, as well as those at St. Vincent, Hood River, Milwaukie, Willamette Falls, and Newberg, have been negotiating with Providence, according to Jay Formick, a registered nurse there.
Formick, who is on the negotiation team for Providence Willamette Falls, stated, “We have been battling with Providence for more than a year to reach an agreement on things like safe staffing, health coverage for nurses, and coming to terms on a reasonable cost of living adjustment.” All of the proposals that have been made to my bargaining unit have maintained nurses’ pay below the market average, both in terms of salary and health benefits.
According to Formick, nurses have moved from Providence to other local health systems, such as Kaiser Permanente, Legacy Health, and Oregon Health & Science University. According to him, more nurses have been leaving the bedside in recent years to work as legal nurse consultants for law firms or in case management roles with health insurance corporations.
In June, almost 3,000 nurses from Providence hospitals in the Portland region went on a brief strike that ended without a deal.
A year prior, several hundred nurses at Providence Seaside and more than 1,300 nurses at Providence Portland went on strike for five days. The contracts expire on December 31st, but they were able to get a new one a few weeks later that included concessions and wage increases of 17% to 26% over two years.
The Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association represents 70 hospitalists in St. Vincent, and since January, they have been negotiating their first contract with Providence. Last year, they decided to form a union.
–Kristine de Leon uncovers tales about data enterprise, small company, retail, and consumer health. [email protected] is her email address.
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