The Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems

The Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems appeared to outmaneuver the efforts of Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, SEIU and consumer advocates to demand the right to know what patients are being charged by getting the ranking members of the Senate Health Committee to sign onto a competing measure that does not disclose individual hospital information and provides only outdated average statewide data from the all-payer, all-claims database.

A year ago, cuts to the emergency department at her hospital meant that just two nurses would be on the job during the overnight hours. An expanded behavioral health unit brought greater mental health resources, but without the staffing to keep up with the workload, said registered nurse Virginia Smith