Sacred Heart hospitalists are groundbreakers in the fight for health care equality and social justice. In 2015, we put patients before profit by forming the first union for hospital doctors in the country.
We are currently in mediation trying to secure a fair contract for all our members. So far, PeaceHealth has not demonstrated they are serious about addressing our concerns.
We believe we have a duty as health care professionals to counter the corporate health care model and to improve health care for our patients and raise safety standards for all hospital workers.
We are physicians and advanced practice nurses who live in and are invested in Lane County and the surrounding community. We are raising our families here and care deeply about the well-being of our neighbors.
Hospitalists are medical specialists dedicated to providing comprehensive care for you when you are hospitalized. When you come to Riverbend and University District Hospitals, the care we provide is promotes your health and recovery. We are part of the team at Sacred Heart that has been at the bedside throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, providing excellent, compassionate, and professional medical care to you and your loved ones.
Our union has worked proactively with PeaceHealth administration to reduce costs for PeaceHealth and patients by dramatically reducing doctor turnover and improving patient outcomes.
PeaceHealth continues to pressure us to discharge patients as soon as possible even when it may not be safe in our professional judgment. Because they get paid the same amount of money regardless of how long you are in the hospital, PeaceHealth seeks to maximize profit by cycling patients through quickly, allowing them to fill empty beds with new, paying customers.
Unfortunately, PeaceHealth is not taking seriously our pleas for support and recognition given the sacrifices we have made over the past 19 months of the pandemic. They continue to risk losing their dedicated hospitalists by not coming to a fair and equitable agreement with our union.
You can help by sending a letter in support of a fair contract for the hospitalists to PeaceHealth Oregon network CEO Todd Salnas.