PORTLAND, Ore. — Nurses at two Providence hospitals are preparing to go on strike next week as they fight for a better contract, and Providence is warning of significant service cuts during the strike.
At Providence Portland Medical Center, nearly all surgeries and neonatal intensive care will be suspended.
About 1,800 nurses at the Portland and Seaside hospitals and the Providence Home Health and Hospice divisions have been going through nine months of negotiations, and they say the upcoming five-day strike is their last resort.
“People are very sad and frustrated and they just want things to be better,” said Kimberly Martin, a registered nurse at Providence Portland.
Nurses frustrated
Nurses are fighting for stronger benefits, including paid sick time, hazard pay and increased wages.
“It’s a huge slap in the face, especially for the longer-serving nurses,” said Richard Botterill, an emergency room nurse and union chair.
“Oh, I can’t tell you how disappointed I’ve been with the sisters of Providence for over 30 years, and I’ve just really noticed a change in their stance toward their employees,” added Martin.
Providence management was unable to talk with KGW on camera Tuesday but sent a statement last week saying they are waiting until the strike is over to resume negotiations. The strike is expected last five days.
Nurses plan to start picketing Monday morning, followed by a rally outside Providence Portland that evening.
Services limited
Providence said it was confident it can continue to provide critical services during the strike; but with less staff available, some services will have to be limited or closed and hospitals have begun preparing for that change.
“As we turn our full focus to preparing our ministries for strikes, we’ll return to the bargaining table once these strikes end with a continued commitment to reaching agreements on contracts that benefit our caregivers and their families,” Providence said.
Providence released a more detailed breakdown of the service reductions in Portland on Wednesday, and urged patients facing life-threatening events to consider going to other Portland hospitals if they are able to do so, as Providence emergency patients will likely face longer wait times.
All surgeries will be halted except for life-and-death emergency situations, Providence said, and the neonatal intensive care unit is being temporarily shut down, with babies being transferred to other hospitals. Many scheduled newborn deliveries will be rescheduled or delayed.
Patient transfers from other hospitals will be significantly reduced, Providence said, and the critical care unit will no longer take in patients in need of ECMO, a life support system for patients with life-threatening heart or lung problems.
Providence Seaside will reschedule elective surgeries and try to step down admittance for patients that don't need acute care. Home health visits are expected to continue with replacement nurses and other clinicians, Providence said.
Disputes over pay and benefits
The Providence statement also included a lengthy summary of its latest offers in the bargaining process, saying that it had offered Portland nurses an average wage increase of 12% in year one of the contract and 3% in the next two years, with bonuses of up to $2,500 and an additional 30 hours of paid time off over three years.
It also said the average salary for full-time hospital nurses is $128,000 in Portland and $118,000 in Seaside, with hourly wages ranging from $31.15 to $60.59 for nurses in home health and hospice.
The Oregon Nurses Association pushed back in its own statement later in the day, arguing that Providence does need to raise salaries to stay competitive with other institutions like OHSU, but that the higher priorities for nurses are increased paid time off, improved staffing levels and more manageable case loads.
"Providence has, yet again, completely missed the point," ONA wrote. "Providence continues to focus exclusively on wages when, in fact, nurses and clinicians are focused on improving patient care, addressing historic unsafe staffing levels throughout the Providence system, and addressing serious patient concerns."
Patients worried
Providence is in the process of bringing in travel nurses for next week, but some have expressed concern that the strike could jeopardize some patients’ care — like Phyllis DeCristofaro, who has been a Providence Portland patient for ten years.
“It would be affected if I had an emergency or something like that and there are no nurses … I think management needs to seriously take into consideration what the nurses want,” DeCristofaro said.
“It will put a strain on the hospital and the community, and the nurses have been feeling this strain and we hope they take steps to avoid that,” added Martin.