Treatments for “a handful” of patients are delayed due to the Providence nurses’ strike

PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) – Early Tuesday morning, 3,000 nurses from the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) in Providence began a three-day strike – the largest nurses strike in Oregon history.

Some patients are already feeling the effects.

Nurses from six different locations in Providence (Hood River, Medford, Milwaukie, Newberg, Oregon City and St. Vincent in Portland) were escorted out of their hospitals around 5:30 a.m. after handing over their duties to substitute nurses.

“It was very challenging and difficult for nurses to quit, but they have to do it to show their solidarity with the union,” says Lisa Gregory, a nurse and member of the ONA bargaining team at Providence St. Vincent.

On Tuesday afternoon, hordes of nurses gathered to picket hospitals, saying they planned to show up every day of the three-day strike from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Hospital officials said the transition to the new nurses went smoothly, except for an ambulance diversion time of less than two hours on Tuesday morning.

“I am pleased to report that the handover phase went very well this morning at all six of our locations,” said Jennifer Gentry, chief nursing officer of the Providence Central Division, at a press conference on Tuesday.

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Providence employees had previously stated that the strike would not disrupt patient care, but Rodney Gibino of Tualatin tells us a different story.

Because of chest pain, he underwent an angiogram scheduled for Tuesday, but on Monday afternoon, Providence officials called and rescheduled the procedure for a few weeks later.

“When I heard the nurses were going on strike that same day, I thought, ‘oh my God,'” Gibino said. “For me, this is not an emergency. My concern is if I was sick and I needed to do something with the angiogram and it got canceled … for someone who really has heart problems, that would be terrible.

“When the person negotiating for Providence says everything is normal, blah blah blah, that’s not true,” Gibino added.

Providence now tells us that only a handful of treatments had to be postponed due to the strike. “We communicate directly with our patients when a postponement is necessary. There has been no general closure of services,” Gentry said.

The two biggest points of contention in the negotiations between the strikers and Providence revolve around staffing levels and insurance costs.

Providence’s new staffing plan under the recently passed Safe Staffing Law would change the nurse-to-patient ratio in some units from one to four to one to five.

“You can’t care for that many patients safely, so there’s a real safety risk to our patients,” Gregory said.

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Gentry said the new ratio was developed in collaboration with ONA.

“They were well aware of the metrics that would apply when the law came into force and we are complying with the law in that regard,” she said.

Nurses we spoke to earlier this week said they have to pay up to $1,000 a month for health insurance due to the medical needs of family members.

Providence said it covers 82 percent of its employees’ health insurance costs, compared to the national industry average of 70 percent. Negotiations over benefits and staffing levels will not continue during the three-day strike, but both sides say they would like to return to the bargaining table and re-agree on a common position.

“Instead of responding to our proposals, ONA has sent us a strike notice. So we don’t know how they feel about our recent offers,” Gentry said.

“We are ready to work and negotiate, and we really don’t want any more walkouts, but they haven’t given us any time to do that,” Gregory said.

Providence employees said they do not currently have a date for the next round of collective bargaining, and ONA members said they have not heard any dates from the hospital.

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