St. Charles Health System and the Oregon Nurses Association have agreed on the terms of a new, three-year contract for nurses at the Bend hospital, the groups announced Friday.

The agreement ends almost five months of negotiations between the two groups, which included 19 meetings between May 23 and Oct. 11.

The contract hasn’t been finalized. The staff of 670 nurses is expected to vote on the contract before Oct. 31, though a date hasn’t been set, said Alison Hamway, local labor relations representative with the ONA.

Final negotiations started at 10 a.m. Wednesday and continued for more than 26 hours through Thursday afternoon. The hospital and nurses association found middle ground on a pair of sticking points during the marathon session, Hamway said.

One was the role of charge nurses, who provide administrative services and train other nursing staff. St. Charles management wanted charge nurses to take on larger patient loads, while nurses wanted them to stay in administrative roles.

Charge nurses will carry some patient loads under the new agreement. Many already do, Hamway said. But the nurses will have more say in future charge-nurse staff changes and patient assignments through the hospital’s staffing committee.

St. Charles also plans to hire clinical supervisors to handle some administrative duties, said Kirk Schueler, chief administrative officer with the hospital. He said he could not comment yet on a timeline for those hires.

The tentative agreement “includes provisions that are really going to put more nurses at the bedside of patients,” Schueler said. “It’s a win for the community, and our patients here, so we’re happy to get the hard work behind us.”

The hospital staffing committee will also review the role of critical-care float nurses, who support other nurses with patients in potentially life-threatening conditions.

“There is going to be some change, which was mutually agreed upon,” Hamway said. The charge and critical-care nursing roles “were the big issues.”

The hospital and ONA narrowed their differences on staffing over the course of negotiations Wednesday and Thursday. Neither side got everything they wanted, Schueler said, but the end result was a contract both could accept.

“Is it what we started with? No,” he said. “But that’s how negotiations work. You start with an ideal outcome and hopefully end with one that’s fair. … It’s not an easy process, but both sides’ commitment and dedication to coming to a tentative agreement is a great outcome.”

The agreement also includes changes in staff pay and health insurance. Under the tentative agreement, nurses at St. Charles will receive 2 percent annual wage increases, retroactive to July 1 and continuing through 2015.

“I think this wage keeps us competitive with similar-sized hospitals in Oregon,” said Hamway. Staff will also have the choice between a primary provider option health insurance plan, or a caregiver-directed plan.

The last nurses’ contract expired June 30.

Representatives on both sides had said over the course of negotiations that they were getting closer to an agreement. But tensions ran high at several points throughout the process, culminating in an informational picket of more than 400 people outside the hospital Sept. 10. The nurses did not stop working at the time.

The 2 percent annual wage increase is higher than the pay raises built into the nurses’ previous contact, a 3.5 percent increase over the two-year period from July 2010 to last June. Negotiations on that contract lasted several months. Under that contract, a beginning nurse makes between $31.05 per hour and $32.61 per hour, depending on certification and education levels.

The new contract comes in lower than the 5 percent annual increase nurses received from 2007 to 2010, however.

Both sides commended each other Friday for negotiating in good faith, with the best interests of hospital patients and employees at the forefront.

“The negotiating team is unanimously recommending this contract,” Hamway said. “It’s fair to say we’re exhausted but pleased.”

In another St. Charles employee announcement, workers represented by the Service Employees International Union are expected to vote Nov. 1 whether to remain with the union, Schueler said.

A group of 600 hospital workers that includes certified nurse assistants, maintenance staff and food service workers voted by a thin margin in early 2011 to join the SEIU. But no contract has been drawn up, and some employees want to decertify the union.

“Our caregivers asked for the election, and we’re pleased the date has been set,” Schueler said. He added that St. Charles has set an Oct. 25 bargaining date with those workers, ahead of the SEIU vote.