Nurses at St. Charles Bend and Prineville have filed 380 safe staffing complaints since the statewide law went into effect two years ago.

Of the submitted complaints, the Oregon Health Authority has sent back 14 to St. Charles for investigation and of those, nine have been found valid, said Stacy Youngs, St. Charles chief nursing officer for Bend and Redmond. In general, the complaints can be for missed breaks or lunch coverage, not having a staffing plan in place, incorrect nurse-to-patient ratios or a 15-minute gap in the schedule. 

“There were a mix of things that weren’t true staffing complaints,” Youngs said. “We are still waiting for OHA to catch up.”

Statewide there were 3,571 complaints filed as of Wednesday with the Oregon Health Authority, the agency charged with substantiating the complaints. Currently 1,604 complaints remain under investigation and  635 were completed within 80 days of the start of the investigation, according to the state’s dashboard.  

Hospital staffing laws were created by lawmakers two years ago as a way to set standards for nurse staffing, which has been an issue not only at the bargaining table but with recruitment and retention. Each hospital system has to reach an agreement on staffing plans for each unit.  Some in the industry feel the lag time and the high number of complaints statewide indicate the flaws in the law.

“The law isn’t working,” said Lisa Goodman, Hospital Association of Oregon spokeswoman. “The number of complaints is not surprising because hospitals are trying to learn a new and complicated law, and OHA has been far too slow at providing clarity.”

At Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, 519 complaints were filed in the same time frame as St. Charles. 

“The law is complicated and we’ve been learning about it to make sure we all understand what is a complaint and how the process works,” Youngs said.  

There is a financial incentive for the health system to get the staffing levels right come June 1, when OHA can assess civil penalties for safe staffing violations. The hospital association is concerned that those fines could push hospitals to cut services and staff and impact patient care as it attempts to satisfy the letter of the law. 

Since the laws went into effect, St. Charles Health System has worked hard to ensure that it meets the guidelines, Youngs said. The health system has approved staffing plans for all units, she said. The hospital system has worked hard to recruit and retain nurses and now has a vacancy rate of 3% down from a high of 27% in 2022, she said. It also dedicates a nurse each day to fill in for meals and breaks of staff in each unit.

“We’ve made significant reductions in missed meals and breaks and have plans in place to handle surge volumes,” Youngs said. “We’ve done a lot of preparation for the summer surge we’re anticipating as the volumes go up for the summer, and it’s a high vacation time for nurses.”

The Central Oregon health system employs more than 5,000 people and in Bend has more than 1,000 nurses. The health system used data from past years to assess staffing needs, including using traveling nurse to fill in gaps where needed, she said.

“A nurse’s job is to advocate for our patients,” said Kevin Mealy, Oregon Nurses Association communications manager. “Nurses are concerned that finances are driving staffing decisions that should be  based on patient safety and care needs.”

The complaint that the health authority is taking too long to investigate nurses’ concerns resonated with Mealy, who hoped that response times would improve shortly. 

“We believe the hospital is trying to get staffing right, but we need to move quickly,” Mealy said, referring to the timeline of civil penalties being levied.