Patients and Providers Offer Stories and Solutions to Local Healthcare Problems
(EUGENE, Ore.) – A recent survey of PeaceHealth patients found a staggering 97% reported having a negative experience at a local PeaceHealth facility with an overwhelming majority reporting multiple issues ranging from long waits for emergency care to unexpected bills.
The findings come nearly a year after PeaceHealth chose to close its University District hospital—leaving nearly 200,000 Eugene residents without a hospital or emergency room in Oregon’s 3rd largest city.
The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) and the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association (PNWHMA) conducted the survey between Sept. 9 – 27, 2024. ONA and PNWHMA represent more than 1,500 frontline nurses, doctors, and advanced practice providers at local PeaceHealth hospitals, clinics, urgent cares and home care services.
“Our nurses, providers and staff clearly voiced concerns to PeaceHealth about the negative impacts closing University District would have on our community and on PeaceHealth Riverbend. Unfortunately, everything we anticipated—and more—has come to pass,” said Chris Rompala, ONA board member and nurse at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center Riverbend.
Key Survey Findings:
- Patients report languishing in PeaceHealth Riverbend’s emergency room (ER). Seventy percent of survey participants reported experiencing long waits for emergency care, with several reporting wait times of 8 hours or more. Multiple patients reported they left the ER without being treated due to lengthy wait times.
In their own words
“Waited 8 hours in ER along with a full room. People puking and sick so over. Actually helped a few people while I was waiting. I took myself from the ER went to my urgent care. They took me back by ambulance my pancreas was ready to explode. Was in hospital for the days.”
“My mother waited 8 hours in the Riverbend ED. We talked to people in the waiting room who waited NINETEEN hours!”
“Ridiculous wait times, like they hoped we’d just leave if we had to wait long enough.”
“Sent in for a ruptured carotid artery, no checks with a b/p of 210/140. Sat with sick pts. in ER … for 10.5 hours. I now refuse to go to Riverbend and always request transport to Portland.”
“13 hour wait in ED with 90 yo mom with increasing confusion and pain. Eventually diagnosed as burst appendix gone septic. This was two weeks after a 10 hour wait at the same location.“
“Went to PeaceHealth in an ambulance around 2:30. Was never sent by 20:30. Called a friend to take me home.”
“On two separate occasions I brought a friend into the ER, once for appendicitis and once for severe back pain. The wait times on both were over 8 hours before she was seen.”
“With the closure of University District, we are seeing a surge in the number of patients we treat at Riverbend’s Emergency Department,” said Rob Sabin, ONA member and ER nurse at PeaceHealth Riverbend. “This increase, combined with short staffing and closed beds throughout the hospital, is putting additional strain on our already overwhelmed Emergency Department. As a result, our community is facing longer wait times and providers are struggling to care for patients in the limited space we have.”
“When I discharge patients from the hospital, many will ask me what they should do if they get sick again at home. As soon as I start talking about reasons to come back to the ER, their faces fall and I can see the fear in their eyes. No one wants to endure another 8 or 9-hour wait in the lobby when they’re hurting, throwing up, or can’t breathe,” said Charlotte Yeomans, MD, PNWHMA President and Hospitalist at PeaceHealth RiverBend. “The wait times are traumatic. They are fundamentally changing how our patients feel about the care they receive in the hospital, even if the vast majority of that care has been excellent. Some patients even ask for extra tests to be run before discharge, ‘just to make sure’ they won’t need to come back again and feel trapped in another ER wait.”
- Local patients report they are struggling to access care at PeaceHealth facilities. A majority of participants reported it was difficult to schedule an appointment at PeaceHealth clinics or urgent cares. Several patients said they’ve had to schedule appointments with PeaceHealth more than 6 months in advance.
In their own words
“In the last few years, everytime I have been sick or ended up in the Emergency room it has been impossible to get an appointment with my regular Dr. They were booked out for months.”
“Very ill couldn’t get an app with PCP for a month … Had to wait over 7 months to get into a sleep study for OSA because of the closing of the PH sleep clinic.”
“Physician asks for a follow-up visit In 3 months but first appointment is 7 months away.”
“I can’t wait 3 months for a UTI (appointment).”
- Half of PeaceHealth’s patients reported they do not receive enough time with healthcare providers. Multiple respondents said PeaceHealth’s facilities appear understaffed and staff seem rushed.
In their own words
“I’ve had the same PCP (primary care provider) for over 10 years. My visits with her used to be 30+ minutes. Now they’re about 15 min. She always seems rushed and a lot of the questions she asks at the end seem scripted.”
“My primary care doctor is rushed and overbooked … My doctor 5 years ago had more time with me. It meant better support and my questions answered … Treat the employees better!”
“Old people take time to get their point across. The University District was always great with my grandparents so patient and kind. RiverBend feels very rushed and over busy and under staffed. Even if they had the staff they don’t have the space.”
- A third of patients reported long waits at PeaceHealth’s urgent care clinics, leading some to head to the emergency room or other clinics or to skip care entirely.
In their own words
“It took me three tries to get into urgent care in Florence. They are ‘booked’ for the day by a few minutes after opening.”
“I waited 2 hours in urgent care to be seen. There was zero privacy in the very very full urgent care waiting room. I had to tell the receptionist that I had been exposed to an STI by my cheating partner. Everyone could hear. At least 30 people. It was embarrassing as hell … The waiting area was absolutely packed like sardines. People were coughing everywhere.”
“The treatment is always great once I can get in. It’s the waiting in the ER or urgent cares for hours on end that is the problem.”
- PeaceHealth patients reported receiving high or unexpected medical bills, with a quarter of respondents saying PeaceHealth charged them top dollar for their services.
In their own words
“I can barely even afford care even with ‘good insurance’ and the wait times are so long that I’d rather wait and hope for issues to pass because it’s unlikely that I will get anything other than a hefty bill.”
“Sat for 5 hours to get a X-ray and 4 stitches in my hand. Also I had come in months before and wound up with a huge bill, and I know it’s gonna be huge again.”
Patients are pointing the finger at PeaceHealth Riverbend since University District closure. While patients shared experiences and concerns about multiple PeaceHealth facilities, an overwhelming majority of patients (71%) reported having a negative experience at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center RiverBend in Springfield. RiverBend has seen increased patients and strain since PeaceHealth executives chose to close University District hospital in Eugene last year. PeaceHealth executives also closed an urgent care clinic in Springfield last year, alongside the sleep clinic and pediatric cardiology service in Springfield, and an optometry clinic and optical shop in Eugene–leaving residents with even fewer healthcare choices.
“For years, nurses and providers at University District offered outstanding community care and provided an essential safety net for many of Lane County’s most vulnerable community members. Now staff at one hospital is responsible for patients from two communities,” said Kevyn Paul, an ONA member and former ER nurse at University District who currently works at Riverbend. “Our nurses and staff are doing their absolute best to give every patient the care they deserve, but we’re stretched to the breaking point. My heart goes out to everyone in our community who is feeling the impact of this change.”
The survey also asked patients to describe any positive experiences they had at PeaceHealth facilities. While many participants happily expressed gratitude towards the many nurses, doctors, techs and other caregivers who treated them; a number of respondents criticized PeaceHealth and its executives for what they perceived as greed and a lack of support for community health amid recent closures.
Patients and Providers Agree on Solutions
When asked how to fix PeaceHealth’s problems, patients offered many of the same commonsense solutions frontline nurses, doctors, advanced practice providers, techs and other caregivers have called for including asking PeaceHealth to hire additional frontline caregivers and reopen a hospital and emergency room in Eugene.
Other recommendations include ensuring providers and staff have more time to spend with patients and reducing wait times to ensure patients can get the care they need when they need it. For their part, frontline nurses, doctors, advanced practice providers, techs, and other caregivers continue calling on PeaceHealth to address its chronic care issues by adopting simple safety, transparency and accountability measures including:
Safe Staffing
- Improve staffing through additional hiring and incentives for frontline nurses, techs, providers and other caregivers and staff.
- Incentivize local RiverBend nurses to work in the emergency department, rather than contracting with short-term, expensive travel nurses.
- Open emergency department rooms earlier in the day and keep them staffed throughout the day to reduce patient wait times and meet changing patient needs.
- Replace the 30+ emergency departments beds lost due to the University District closure, including adding secure psychiatric beds that are essential to community health.
- Increase staffing at PeaceHealth Cottage Grove Community Medical Center to address increased patient volumes stemming from PeaceHealth’s closure of University District.
Public Transparency
- Publicly share data on how the closure of University District has affected our community’s healthcare, including sharing information it is required to report per its waiver agreement with the Oregon Health Authority (pg. 103) as well as current data on patient use trends at PeaceHealth Riverbend.
- Publicly share its plans and timeline for renovating PeaceHealth Riverbend’s emergency department to accommodate additional patients.
Community Accountability
- Recommit to providing healthcare to our communities’ most vulnerable residents including chronically ill, homebound, uninsured and underinsured populations.
- End recent corporate healthcare partnerships with for-profit, private-equity-backed corporations like LifePoint. Research shows for-profit, private-equity-linked healthcare ventures can lead to higher-cost, lower-quality healthcare. This demand also extends to other local healthcare companies who are eyeing for-profit partnerships.
“These results reaffirm what we’ve been advocating for years: short staffing poses serious risks to the future of patient care,” said Sarina Roher, President of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP), representing nearly 350 technicians, therapists, and technical staff at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Riverbend. “PeaceHealth must step up to attract and retain qualified staff, while also ensuring transparency and accountability to the community we serve. Our patients and professionals deserve nothing less.”