Read more about the work the hospital association is doing on behalf of Oregon’s hospitals.
At its December meeting, the Hospital Association of Oregon Board of Trustees selected its officers, whose collective expertise will help guide the organization’s strategic priorities and support hospitals at a critical moment for health care in Oregon.
After several years of advocacy by hospitals and federally qualified health centers, the Oregon Legislature passed HB 2385-B with bipartisan support.
The Oregon Senate passed HB 2385-B, helping protect Oregonian’s ability to get 340B program medications at community pharmacies close to home. The hospital association is grateful for the Senate’s support, especially Sen. Patterson, Sen. Reynolds, and Sen. Campos, who played a key role in securing the bill’s passage.
A new Hospital Association of Oregon report shows that hospitals are financially unstable, threatening the future of patient care in Oregon communities. Almost half of the state’s hospitals operated at a loss in 2024, and others barely broke even.
The Hospital Association of Oregon released a new economic impact study showing that Oregon’s community hospitals generate $32.4 billion in economic activity and support 160,000 jobs statewide. These findings highlight the vital role hospitals play in the state’s economy and reinforce the need for their financial stability to protect patient care and access to health services.
Even as they face significant financial headwinds, Oregon’s hospitals have increased their community benefit spending by 29% from fiscal year 2018 to fiscal year 2023.
Oregon's hospitals are urging passage of HB 2010-A, legislation essential to protecting health care access for 1.4 million Oregonians who rely on the Oregon Health Plan and preventing further destabilization of hospitals.
The Hospital Association of Oregon elected one new trustee, and four current trustees were elected to new two-year terms.
The Hospital Association of Oregon Board of Trustees has elected Joe Ness, interim executive vice president and interim CEO of OHSU Health, and Tom Gessel, president and CEO of Asante, to serve as member trustees on the board of trustees. Both were elected to fill vacancies on the board.
The Hospital Association of Oregon filed a notice of appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, appealing the district court's summary judgment order in the case of Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems v. State of Oregon et al., case number 22-cv-1486 (D. Or.).
The hospital association board of trustees has elected Samaritan CEO Doug Boysen as chair. Boysen's two-year term began Jan. 1.
Two of Oregon's outstanding hospital leaders have joined the association board for a two-year term.
Hospitals are experiencing the increasing pressure of an inflationary environment. Their operating expenses continued to rise in the second quarter, with employee costs (which make up half of total operating expenses) increasing 31% from the second quarter of 2020. Spending on supplies has also increased sharply, by 52%.
In a show of strong bipartisan support, the Oregon Senate passed House Bill 2697, a groundbreaking piece of legislation that will make significant advances in hospital staffing and patient care.
Despite the financial havoc wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, including sharply rising costs and stagnant revenue, Oregon hospitals’ total community benefit spending grew by $225 million in 2021 to $1.97 billion.
In a series of regular columns, Hospital Association of Oregon President and CEO Becky Hultberg shares her view on how Oregon hospitals are making a difference in the communities they serve.
As legislators and agency officials begin to grapple with their new post-H.R. 1 funding reality, it’s critical they focus on strengthening the foundation of health care funding in our state—a strong, vibrant economy.
Oregon's health care system cannot absorb the cuts in H.R. 1 without significant disruption, and the results may be painful: service cuts, hospital and facility closures, longer wait times, and reduced access to insurance. As a state, we have hard choices to make. Now is the time for leadership.
On behalf of Oregon’s 61 community hospitals—from Coos Bay to Enterprise and everywhere in between—I ask legislators to support the governor’s budget, including supporting HB 2010 to reauthorize the provider taxes that help fund OHP and taking action to increasing funding for hospitals serving OHP members. These steps will not only protect access to care for all Oregonians but will help hospitals continue their important role in keeping our communities healthy and vibrant.
For the past four years, Oregon’s community hospitals have been under extreme financial strain. Hospitals aren’t paid enough to cover the costs of providing care. Every day their doors remain open to us, they risk a future where they cannot provide the same level of services they do today.
If we want strong, stable hospitals that provide access to care, we must tackle the underlying issues causing financial instability for hospitals.
If we want to ensure dependable access to services in our communities--and have a robust and resilient workforce--we need to make investments and policy decisions that will help hospitals be financially and operationally viable. The stability of our hospitals must be a priority this session and beyond.
We are grateful for the trust Oregon’s hospitals have built over the years, and we hope to use that trust as a foundation to innovate and improve our health care system, putting our patients and communities at the center of all we do.
For more than 90 years, the Hospital Association of Oregon has been the voice for our state’s community hospitals. But a lot has changed during that time, and it is time for us to change, too.
When it comes to their health, Oregonians trust the teams of professionals who care for them because they have confidence that those teams can work together to navigate a constantly changing environment.
With hospitals still reeling from the pandemic and economic headwinds like inflation adding to their strain, we set ambitious public policy goals to ensure Oregonians would have access to the care they deserve now and into the future.
I’ve always found inspiration in the stories of people drawn to do the difficult work of health care. My own journey, while circuitous, was shaped by important events in my life.
For more than a century, Oregon’s not-for-profit hospitals have worked hard to keep our communities healthy.
Leaders from Oregon’s hospital and health care community explain complex issues that impact the health care system, hospitals, and ultimately patients.
Dan Grigg, CEO of Wallowa Community Hospital in Enterprise, Ore., was a teenager when he understood the importance of access to care close to where people live, especially in rural parts of the state. Maintaining and growing access to essential services in rural Oregon has been a guiding principle in his career.
When hospitals can’t transfer patients to the next appropriate level of care, fewer beds are available for community members in need. In this episode of our podcast, Hospital 101, Salem Health President and CEO Cheryl Wolfe describes the emergency department boarding challenge at Salem Hospital, and how the creative use of a nearby critical access hospital has helped ease the problem in the community while providing better care to patients.
“Structurally, the pandemic fundamentally changed the health care system.” Becky Hultberg, president and CEO, explains why hospitals are still struggling financially even though the worst days of the pandemic are behind us.
Using the data provided by our affiliate organization, Apprise Health Insights, the Hospital Association of Oregon continues to produce valuable reports highlighting the financial health of Oregon’s hospitals as well as health care workforce and patient care trends.
Even as they face significant financial headwinds, Oregon’s hospitals have increased their community benefit spending by 29% from fiscal year 2018 to fiscal year 2023, according to the Hospital Association of Oregon’s latest Community Benefit Report.
In the 82nd Oregon Legislature, the hospital association worked to advance policies that address hospitals' current and long-term needs to sustain a health care system that generations of Oregonians can rely on.
Analysis of the utilization and financial data submitted by Oregon's hospitals and a forward look into current trends.
Analysis of the utilization and financial data submitted by Oregon's hospitals and a forward look into current trends.
Oregon’s nonprofit hospitals and health systems are driven by a mission to provide high-quality health care, no matter patients’ ability to pay.
Analysis of the utilization and financial data submitted by Oregon's hospitals and a look into year-end and current trends.
This report aims to provide a quarterly analysis of the utilization and financial data submitted by Oregon’s hospitals.
According to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, two of the leading causes of health care worker injuries are manual patient lifting and workplace violence. Musculoskeletal disorder injuries are generally due to overexertion related to repeated manual patient handling activities, often involving heavy manual lifting associated with transferring and repositioning patients and working in extremely awkward postures. The consequences of work-related musculoskeletal injuries among health care workers are substantial both to the workers themselves and to employers.
Meanwhile, health care and social assistance workers are nearly five times more likely to be injured and require time away from work as a result of workplace violence. Oregon’s hospitals are committed to a culture of safety and believe in a doctrine of zero tolerance toward violence.
To help address these issues, the Hospital Association of Oregon convened the Workplace Safety Initiative (WSI) Work Group in 2014 to find ways to collaboratively work on solutions. Work group members included representatives from SEIU Local 49, the Oregon Nurses Association, and representatives from various member hospitals in Oregon. Lynda Enos, RN, BSN, MS, COHN-S, CPE, Ergonomics/Human Factors Consultant, HumanFit, LLC was the consultant working directly with the pilot hospitals, including writing the WPV toolkit and the SPH tools.
The goals of the WSI project are:
To reach these goals, the group developed a pilot project working with Oregon hospitals. Volunteer hospitals of varying sizes from across the state participated in the safe patient handling project or the Workplace Violence Prevention project. The work with these pilot hospitals directly informed the materials provided below.
