PORTLAND, Oregon — Sue Phillips and her husband Mike find themselves among the hundreds of Portland-area families dealing with delayed surgeries at both Providence Portland and Providence St. Vincent medical centers.
"My husband has been having mobility issues because he has bone-on-bone knee pain,” said Sue. “It's impacted his quality of life. He has a lot of pain and is suffering from it."
The two hospitals announced back in July that they would be changing their anesthesia service providers from Oregon Anesthesiology Group to Sound Physicians. The change took place on November 22 as they've been dealing with a shortage of providers both locally and nationally, according to Providence.
In a statement to KGW, the hospital group says part of the reason for the change was to "provide consistent anesthesia coverage for our patients and surgeons."
"Our previous agreement created a situation in which patients had to wait for services while we prioritized cases based on availability of anesthesia services,” Providence continued. "We believe this switch will enable us to get back closer to our typical volumes early next year."
But like others, Sue Phillips believes the hospital could have been more proactive if patients like her husband had been aware of this dilemma.
“Providence has an obligation to serve the community and their patients, and I feel like they are not doing this,” said Sue. “I'm not sure why they can't get enough anesthesiologists, but it's causing pain misery and suffering on people waiting for total joints and improved mobility."
Mike Phillips has had two separate surgeries delayed at Providence, one of which is a total knee replacement. But the hospital system has said that both locations will only focus on urgent procedures through the end of the year — a time when many people strategically plan surgeries as they've met their insurance co-pays.
"It's going to impact us financially,” said Sue. “Because it's the end of the year and we are going to have to start all over again with our co-pays, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses come January when he has his surgery."
Providence says it understands the impact delaying surgery has on its patients, and it's doing its best to overcome the anesthesiologist shortage. But for the Phillips', that isn't enough.
“Pain is not only affecting his mobility, but his sleep, rest pattern (and) mood. It's not just being able to walk with a knee, there's other things that are impacted by that,” Sue said.
After spending 40 years working as a nurse, Sue had a message for the hospital system:
"Your financial priorities are impacting the quality of life of the patients that signed up for Providence insurance,” she said. “Not acceptable."
The hospital system says that in its first week with the new anesthesia provider, they performed a combined total of 183 surgeries and other procedures requiring anesthesia at Providence St. Vincent and Providence Portland.
Providence also tells KGW the new anesthesia provider has just hired 76 staffers between both hospitals. They will have finished orientation by the end of this week.