The Lund Report

Morgan Cowling (right), the outgoing executive director of the Universal Health Plan Governance Board, reads from a document during the panel's first meeting in April 2024. Jennifer Donovan (left), a senior policy advisor, will serve as interim executive director after Cowling resigned. | JAKE THOMAS/THE LUND REPORT

Top staffer to Oregon's universal health care board resigns

Nine months after its launch the new state board tasked with crafting a plan for universal health care in Oregon needs to replace its top staffer

Jan 16
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State Rep. Ed Diehl, R-Scio, speaks during a legislative hearing in December 2024. | JAKE THOMAS/THE LUND REPORT

Oregon’s health care staffing shortages could get relief under new bills

Two influential Democrats have joined a Republican lawmaker on efforts to make it easier for out-of-state professionals to ease staffing problems and help patient access

Jan 16
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An ambulance pulls into the entrance driveway for Oregon Health & Science University's emergency department on Wed., Oct. 27, 2021. | OHSU/CHRISTINE TORRES HICKS

Burnout lingers but the ranks of Oregon health care workers are growing

Numbers of nurses and others are growing but local education programs can't keep up with new job openings, per a state report

Jan 14
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Providence nurses in Oregon are on strike, and it's unclear when a contract deal might be reached. | OREGON NURSES ASSOCIATION

Providence, nurses ready to resume contract talks as strike continues

With Providence backing down from an earlier pledge to not negotiate with a striking union, the two sides seem ready to negotiate — but are they?

Jan 14
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Oregon House Majority Leader Ben Bowman speaks about his efforts to curb what critics call the "corporatization of medicine" at the Oregon Health Forum on Oct. 16, 2024, in Portland. To his left is Brian Kelly, CEO of Women’s Healthcare Associates. | JAKE THOMAS/THE LUND REPORT

Bowman reboots Oregon push to limit corporate control of medicine

The revived bill addresses criticism from providers, multinational corporations and other interests that helped sink it last year

Jan 14
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Nurses and other health care workers along with their supporters took to the picket lines outside Providence Portland Medical Center on Monday as the state’s largest nurses union called a five-day strike. | JAKE THOMAS/THE LUND REPORT

Providence asks to resume bargaining with nurses union despite strike

Oregon's largest hospital system has asked a federal mediator to resume sessions with the Oregon Nurses Association. More than 4,000 nurses and other providers are striking, but the system says a large number have crossed the picket lines.

Jan 11

Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, in Portland, Ore., Aug. 2, 2023. | KRISTYNA WENTZ-GRAFF/OPB

Strike at Providence hospitals will further strain Oregon's health care system

Hospitals say they'll transfer patients and make the best of the situation in a statewide system that has kept costs down by maintaining fewer beds than in most states

Jan 9
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