St. Charles Health System cutting back on ‘traveling nurses’ contracts to stem losses from pandemic

(Update: Adding video, comments from St. Charles chief operating officer, ONA spokesman)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- St. Charles Health System is cutting back on the contracted "traveling nurses" jobs added during the COVID-19 pandemic's critical staffing issues, as they work to balance the books amid operating losses and bleak financial results reported by hospitals across the state.

NewsChannel 21 reached out to the organization this week after a local woman contacted us, saying her husband's surgery recently was canceled, just hours before it was scheduled to take place.

The man said he was told by his doctor about the traveling nurse layoffs and that he'd be better off getting surgery elsewhere due to lack of bed space for his one-night stay.

St. Charles Health System Chief Operating Officer Iman Simmons said travel nurses fill gaps in employment when full-time employees take extended leaves of absence, for example.

"We use nurse travelers to fill in like when someone goes on family leave," she said. "A permanent staff member is missing from the staffing mix, so we hire or bring on our nurse travelers."

The development comes as a report released by Oregon hospitals say they finished 2022 in the red due to staffing shortages, rising expenses and stalled revenue.

As part of their moves to stem the red ink, St. Charles is cutting back on employing higher-cost traveling nurses, bringing the numbers down to what they call a normal pre-pandemic level.

Though the Oregon Nurses Association represents full-time staff, not temporary contract workers, they don't welcome the news, saying it could make a tough situation worse.

Mealy explained, "We were already at a Code Red situation with nurse staffing in Bend, and losing more staff just puts us deeper in a hole."

Simmons said, "Our vacancy rate for all of nursing is at 20 percent."

A hospital spokeswoman said they currently have 127 open bedside nursing positions they are actively recruiting to fill throughout the health system.

While St. Charles is cutting back on hiring more nurse travelers for now, they say plenty are still helping critical sections of the four hospitals.

"We currently have a zero vacancy rate in our critical care nursing areas," Simmons said. "So it's an uneven level of vacancy across nursing, with the highest percentage being procedural and 'med surge,' or acute care nursing."

While rescheduling and even canceling of surgeries is not uncommon, the lack of staff and bed space is a concern.

Simmons added that pushing away patients is never a measure they want to take.

"If the surgery was canceled because we didn't have a bed for the patient to recover -- we work hard to prevent that," she said. "So if a patient is recovering and is ready to be discharged home, or discharged to a skilled nursing facility, we try to make sure that happens in a timely way."

Mealy claimed, "And with Saint Charles, we know they are already closing off beds because they don't have enough staff to care for patients."

In a statement provided earlier to NewsChannel 21 Simmons said, “St. Charles is actively working to reduce its reliance on expensive contract labor as part of its pandemic recovery plans. Retaining our highly trained workforce and recruiting new permanent staff are one of the key strategies necessary to our long-term financial viability, as well as the continued provision of the highest quality of patient care."

“We have made significant progress in hiring clinical caregivers and our vacancy rate for nursing positions is the lowest it has been in several years," Simmons added. "We are constantly monitoring our staffing levels and will close patient beds and adjust surgery and procedure schedules as necessary. As always, patient safety is our top priority.”

The temporary hiring of dozens of higher-paid contract nurses -- some by the hospital, others provided by the state -- came amid a pandemic that in the summer of 2021 had 93 % of Oregon's hospital beds occupied. The National Guard also was called in to help staff hospitals in various ways and to assist at mass vaccination clinics. And numerous elective surgeries were canceled or delayed for many months.

Recently, in a rare, unified move, the state's hospitals and health-professional unions agreed, after months of negotiations, on proposals to state lawmakers that would make Oregon the first state in the nation to set nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, among other steps.