PORTLAND, Ore. — A statewide strike involving nurses at Providence hospitals came to an end Friday morning, but heated rhetoric between the hospital system and nurses union continued. The Oregon Nurses Association alleges that Providence has violated a new Oregon law governing hospital staffing ratios, something Providence denies.
Since the beginning of the strike, ONA has accused Providence of "purposefully undermining" Oregon's hospital safe staffing law, which was revised in 2023 with buy-in from both health care unions and hospital systems. According to the union, Providence has approved staffing plans without the participation of union nurses — when, under the law, they should make up half the committee that approves staffing plans.
In a statement issued Friday, ONA said that the Oregon Health Authority had confirmed violations of the safe staffing law by Providence in a June 20 letter.
"Providence submitted staffing plans to OHA for approval that were never agreed upon by nurses and were unilaterally adopted by management without the required approval from the nurse staffing committee," ONA said. "According to OHA, this action violates Oregon’s staffing law, as ONA-represented nurses have been claiming. Additionally, Providence’s proposals at the bargaining table sought to eliminate the legal requirement for staffing committee agreement, which nurses have steadfastly refused to accept."
In its own statement, Providence vehemently denied the allegation, saying that the OHA found nothing of the sort.
"There’s only one problem with that accusation: It’s not true," Providence said. "The letter union leaders are relying on to leap to that false conclusion ... doesn’t even mention Providence in its findings."
A copy of OHA's letter demonstrates that neither side is being entirely truthful.
It is true that Providence is not directly mentioned in OHA's letter. At the same time, it's clear that the letter is meant to address a number of ONA complaints about similar issues related to the staffing law, potentially involving multiple hospital systems.
If Providence adopted a staffing plan without input from ONA nurses, then Providence could be in violation of the law that both sides agreed on. The letter states that, without a quorum on the staffing committee and a majority vote in favor of the plan, OHA will not consider the plan to be adopted.
Under the new law, hospital systems needed to adopt a new plan meeting its requirements by June 1. In some cases — Providence Portland Medical Center, for example — the staffing plans Providence submitted to OHA were not signed by a union nurse, and did not have a date on which they were adopted. Other hospitals did have signatures from union nurses, particularly ones that adopted a staffing plan before May.
OHA's letter does not deliver any findings specifically related to Providence, let alone a conclusion that the hospital system broke state law.
The new law allows for arbitration if the two sides can't agree on a staffing plan within 90 days, but OHA told KGW that no hospital has yet requested arbitration. If a plan isn't adopted by agreement or through arbitration, OHA said, then the agency can launch an investigation.
OHA confirmed to KGW that it has received more than 550 nurse staffing complaints against hospitals statewide since June 1, including complaints against Providence hospitals. All of those complaints are still in process, and OHA has yet to complete any investigations or make determinations.
The agency also made clear that its role in enforcement of the staffing law may be limited — OHA will not, they said, be evaluating staffing plans to determine if they are compliant with Oregon law. Instead, their job is to look at whether a health care facility is consistent with the staffing plan it adopted.
For its part, Providence said it was grateful to receive the OHA's new guidance and is evaluating its process with that guidance in mind. The hospital system said it would release an updated statement Friday afternoon.
