St. Charles nurses call memo ‘slap in the face,’ demand more COVID-19 protections
(Update: Adding nurse comments, video)
Hospital responds: 'Top priority to keep caregivers, patients safe'
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Local nurses delivered a petition to St. Charles Health System executives Wednesday, calling on executives to provide adequate personal protective equipment and oversight, COVID-19 testing, sick leave and safe staffing for front-line health care workers.
In less than 48 hours, the petition was signed by more than 160 Bend-area health care providers, the Oregon Nurses Association said.
"Nurses and health care providers are standing up after St. Charles executives inaccurately and inappropriately accused health care providers of spreading COVID-19 in a recent COVID-19 update email to staff," the union said in a news release.
The nurses in Bend said they are fighting for necessary protections, while St. Charles is playing a "blame game."
Their demands include providing adequate personal protective equipment, access to COVID-19 tests, paid sick leave -- and an apology.
"It's a bit of a slap in the face," St. Charles nurse Corey Sattler told NewsChannel 21.
Sattler said St. Charles executives have incorrectly placed blame on caregivers for the hospital's COVID cases.
Back in April, the union said, St. Charles leaders plastered the hallways with signs and quotes, calling the staff "heroes."
Now, with staffing levels low, Sattler and other nurses say the hospital is unfairly blaming caregivers for bring the virus into the workplace.
The Oregon Nurses Association said caregivers are contracting the virus at work because St. Charles is failing to protect them adequately.
Sattler said nurses on the front lines are not even regularly tested.
And sometimes, if they do show symptoms, they are only told to mask and monitor while continuing to work, he said.
"We do not have a regular testing schedule for nurses at the hospital," Sattler said. "There are many places that do, but the hospital is not one of them. We are only tested if we show symptoms."
St. Charles revealed in its response that the hospital system has had 54 caregivers test positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began, though that represents less than 10 percent of the more than 640 employees tested; St. Charles has more than 4,500 caregivers.
The Oregon Health Authority previously had disclosed an outbreak at the hospital involving five cases in late October (the agency only lists workplace outbreaks involving five or more people).
NewsChannel 21 asked Sattler what he would tell those who would say that this is what nurses signed up for.
"This isn't something we signed on for, because this isn't something that any of us expected us to see or have seen," Sattler said. "This is brand new territory."
Sattler said this was nothing anyone could have predicted, and when nurses signed on, they could never have imagined this situation.
"We signed on to be caregivers. We signed on to take care of our community," Sattler said. "We didn't sign on to be a number, we signed on to be a nurse."
Sattler said he and his colleagues will continue to provide care for those in need, but they hope for workplace improvements in the near future.
In last Thursday’s note to caregivers, entitled ‘Clarification on furlough and travel policy,” St. Charles officials wrote, “When the pandemic first started, caregivers and providers were rightly concerned that they could be exposed to the virus by a patient and become sick.”
“So far, we do not believe that any of our caregivers or providers have contracted the virus from a patient,” read the letter, signed by Dr. Jeff Absalon, St. Charles’ chief physician executive, Iman Simmons, chief operating officer, and the health system’s COVID-19 incident commanders.
“However, we have had some cases where caregivers have exposed their fellow caregivers at work or while socializing outside of work,” they wrote. “This is serious.”
“We are now at a point in the pandemic where it is more likely that a caregiver will expose a patient to the virus,” the officials' letter continued. “This is not acceptable and we need to do everything in our power to keep our patients safe, as well as our workforce.”
The letter noted that any caregivers or providers who choose to travel outside of the state will be furloughed without pay for 14 days upon their return, though they can use their time off. Caregivers can return to work early if they have a negative COVID-19 test after a week has passed.
“They are using this as an excuse to refuse to provide us clear support, testing and equipment. We are under tremendous stress every single day," Sattler continued. "We are reaching levels of burnout, which are not only dangerous to us, but to the community we serve. St. Charles’ answer is to blame us, then remove our protections in order to maintain their profits. It’s inexcusable. It’s a slap in the face to each and every nurse risking their lives every day for our patients.”
The union claimed that as COVID-19 cases continue surging in Oregon and across the country, staff at St. Charles are still being asked to reuse single-use masks beyond manufacturers’ safety recommendations, to ‘mask and monitor’ after COVID-19 exposures instead of getting COVID-19 tests and pushing nurses to return from quarantine early.
The ONA said front-line health care workers are at a high risk of contracting coronavirus while caring for sick patients, particularly during the surge, when treating more patients with fewer staff.
The Oregon Health Authority reports that nearly 10 percent of Oregon’s COVID-19 cases are health care workers. Nearly 70 percent of health care workers who have contracted COVID-19 work in direct patient care.
Yet last week, St. Charles executives emailed caregivers claiming there were no cases of patient-to-provider transmission and blaming local caregivers for hospital-based COVID-19 cases.
“Caregivers are contracting COVID-19 at work because St. Charles is failing to protect them. Nurses are working on the frontlines of a pandemic. When nurses don’t have proper safety equipment or support; they will get sick,” said ONA spokesperson Kevin Mealy.
“St. Charles needs to admit its mistake, and apologize to the front-line nurses and caregivers who are risking their own safety to save lives. Then St. Charles needs to get to work to support nurses by providing the PPE, testing, staffing and sick leave that will help keep them safe, so they can continue caring for their community.”
The ONA said nurses in Bend have been notable leaders at slowing the spread of COVID-19. Local nurses led the successful effort to pause elective surgeries in the spring, donated more than 10,000 free masks to community members this summer and are continuing to care for Central Oregon’s sickest and most vulnerable populations during the current surge.
The Oregon Nurses Association represents nearly 1,000 nurses at St. Charles Bend.
We reached out to St. Charles for an interview, but they declined. However, they released this statement late Wednesday:
“Our top priority during this pandemic is to keep our devoted caregivers and our patients safe,” said Dr. Jeff Absalon, St. Charles’ chief physician executive.
“Our teams have worked hard to ensure our caregivers have access to an adequate supply of personal protective equipment and adhere to best practices for infection prevention, and the success of those efforts is underscored by the caregiver exposure tracking data we keep.
"Since March, we have tested more than 640 caregivers for COVID-19, 54 of whom have tested positive. With roughly 4,500 caregivers, that means 1.2 percent of our workforce has contracted the virus, a number that is on par with what we’re seeing in our communities.
"It’s also noteworthy that, for every positive case, we conduct a follow-up investigation to determine the source of exposure and with rare exception, have found these to be community-acquired. Put another way, in spite of caring for patients with COVID 19, our caregivers are not commonly contracting the virus in our facilities,” Abaslon concluded.
Click here to view a copy of the employee note the union called "St. Charles's inaccurate and inappropriate email message." Their highlighting is added.
https://www.oregonrn.org/resource/resmgr/stc-b/STCB_EmailtoStaff_Nov2020.pdf
The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) is the state’s largest and most influential nursing organization. We are a professional association and labor union which represents 15,000 nurses and allied health workers throughout the state. Our mission is to advocate for nursing, quality health care and healthy communities. For more information visit: www.OregonRN.org.
