The largest health care strike in Oregon history began early Friday at Providence across the state, as roughly 5,000 frontline health professionals walked off the job.
The strike — which includes mostly nurses and 150 doctors and advanced practitioners in addition to thousands of nurses — spans Providence’s eight hospitals in the state.
While Providence workers have in recent years held strikes limited to a few days, it hasn’t set an end date for this one. A strike that could last days or longer — and that includes multiple locations of one of the region’s largest health care providers — could prove enormously disruptive to Oregon’s already strained health care system.
Because health workers must give advance notice of their intent to strike, Providence and the region’s other hospitals have had more than 10 days to prepare. Providence has hired 2,000 temporary nurses to keep its hospitals open during the strike.
But the physicians and advanced practitioners striking at St. Vincent Medical Center and its chain of six women’s clinics have proven harder to replace.
With up to 70 hospitalists striking at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, the hospital said it has postponed surgeries and that it would need to cap new patient admissions.
Providence has also been rescheduling appointments at its women’s clinics, where 80 physicians, nurse practitioners and nurse midwives have walked off the job.
Other hospitals included in the strike are Providence Portland, Providence Willamette Falls in Oregon City, Providence Milwaukie, Providence Hood River, Providence Seaside, Providence Newberg and Providence Medford.
Providence and the Oregon Nurses Association, which represents the nurses and other frontline health workers, have not reached agreement on contracts spanning multiple bargaining units.
The union said patients who need medical care should not delay going to a hospital or medical clinic even during the strike. Seeking medical care is not considered crossing the picket line, the union said.
Providence said it has proposed a 20% pay raise for nurses over the next three years, excluding overtime, holiday pay and incentives. The health system said it has also offered up to $5,000 signing bonuses to sign the new contract.
But the union says that the dispute also has to do with the persistent staffing shortages that have plagued hospitals, and the broader health care system, since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The issue at hand is not just about pay,” Gina Ottinger, a registered nurse at Providence St. Vincent, said at a news conference Thursday. “It’s about staffing, employee health care, patient care and overall working conditions.”
Ottinger said Providence management has not taken into account the complexity of patient care and the growing demands to care for more patients that nurses deem safe or reasonable.
Meanwhile, the striking doctors and advanced practitioners at Providence St. Vincent and the women’s clinics want Providence to address chronic staffing levels by limiting the number of hospital admissions when patient numbers exceed what doctors can reasonably manage.
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