PeaceHealth, Lane County’s largest medical provider, will once again reduce its available beds and nursing staff.
The hospital announced in April that it would not renew the contracts of 36 full-time travel nurses. Travel nurses are registered nurses who take temporary assignments for varying lengths of time, and because of their flexibility and frequent movement they often receive a higher amount of compensation. With the reduction of nursing staff, the hospital will not be able to provide care for as many patients, and as a result the number of available beds will be reduced by around 30. This will bring the total amount of beds PeaceHealth has cut to nearly 20%, according to the Oregon Nurses Association.
In a statement, PeaceHealth said, “Reducing reliance on high-cost temporary workers and strengthening our local recruitment efforts takes time, and we are working to minimize impact to patients while continuing to meet the health needs of our communities.”
With over 200 vacant nursing positions, PeaceHealth has been relying on travel nurses to fill in the gaps.
The Sacred Heart Medical Center ONA Bargaining Unit believes that if the hospital gave current staff better working conditions, it would attract more permanent nursing staff — ultimately reducing PeaceHealth’s reliance on travel nurses.
Chris Rompala is a staff nurse at Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend. He is the chair of the Sacred Heart Medical Center ONA Bargaining Unit, which is currently bargaining with PeaceHealth for better staffing conditions and benefits.
Rompala said that these cuts will likely bring greater wait times in emergency departments, as there will be fewer staff to provide care to patients. Rompala also said that these cuts have the potential to delay local emergency services. For example, there may not be room for more patients brought in by the fire department, and consequently the department’s response time may be delayed while they wait for the hospital to have the capacity for them to unload patients.
Emily Appleman previously worked as a nurse at Sacred Heart Medical in the University District. “I think that cutting patient beds will negatively impact the community and the community’s health,” Appleman said.
Appleman said the cuts have already taken their toll. On several occasions, she has been sent down to the PeaceHealth Riverbend location to help manage staffing shortfalls. She said that PeaceHealth claims there’s a focus on recruiting and retaining nursing staff, but she’s seen colleagues of hers leave due to changes made by PeaceHealth.
Rompala said employing so many travel nurses is not a sustainable system, and that travel nurses are sometimes paid as much as twice the amount as regular full-time nurses.
Rompala says that the ONA is currently trying to negotiate for safe staffing in Oregon PeaceHealth locations. If the ONA successfully gets safe-staffing language in nurses’ contracts, it would make it so that each nurse would have a specific number of patients that they’re allowed to take care of in one period.
“The amount of work that is being tasked to our nurses now does not allow them to provide the level of care that they know they can provide and that our patients deserve,” Rompala said.
Rompala said he believes that if PeaceHealth agrees to implement these changes, more nurses will be attracted to its facilities and it would help PeaceHealth with their goals of reducing reliance on travel nurses and recruiting healthcare workers from the community.
