Struggling St. Charles receives 65 state-contracted traveling nurses, paramedics, others

Only meets critical needs; elective surgeries expected to be limited all year

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- St. Charles provided orientation on Sunday to 65 traveling nurses, certified nursing assistants, paramedics and respiratory therapists provided under a new state contract for hospitals hit hard by a record number of COVID-19 patients amid severe staffing shortages.

Gov. Kate Brown announced last week that the state was contracting with two medical staffing companies, Jogan Health Solutions and AMN Healthcare, for up to 560 health care personnel to help hard-hit hospitals, particularly in Central and Southern Oregon at present.

The new medical staff arrivals from Jogan Health Solutions will join 129 Oregon National Guard troops who began helping earlier this month in other roles at the four St. Charles hospitals, St. Charles Public Information Officer Lisa Goodman told NewsChannel 21.

"Due to some barriers with licensing, only 29 (of the new arrivals) are working in our units today," Goodman said. "We expect to have those licensing issues resolved within the next few days, at which time we’ll be able to deploy the remaining travelers to the bedside."

"These travelers, who will be available to work in St. Charles’ hospitals for up to 13 weeks, are helping meet the health system’s critical need for caregivers at a time when our patient census remains high," Goodman said in an email.

"Because these resources are contracted by the Oregon Health Authority, they could be redeployed to other parts of the state," she noted, sayings the state also is helping hospitals in the Medford, Grants Pass and Roseburg areas.

"We’re of course very grateful for the help, but these additional staffing resources are only enough to care for our most sick and injured patients," Goodman said.

As a result, she wrote, "Through Dec. 31, we expect to continue restricting the number of elective surgeries to align with our available capacity. Currently, that is around five cases per day that require an overnight stay. 

"We’re also restricting cases that don’t require an overnight stay, because half of our recovery room space is being used to care for patients who we can’t fit in our traditional departments," Goodman said. "We continue to be very concerned about our growing backlog of elective surgeries that is resulting from this public health crisis."