Physicians who work at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Ore., have voted to join the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association, a hospitalists union represented by AFT Healthcare and serviced by the Oregon Nurses Association.
Eighty-seven percent of voting physicians voted in favor of unionization, according to a union news release. The vote covers more than 70 physicians.
"We are embracing this opportunity to form our union," Shirley Fox, MD, an OB-GYN hospitalist at St. Vincent, said in the release. "We want to redefine our relationship with the hospital system which has increasingly put our concerns aside as it aims to meet corporate priorities. We wish to come face to face as respected health professionals to address important issues in the safe delivery of patient care and to address the sustainability of our current working conditions."
Renton, Wash.-based Providence, the parent organization of St. Vincent, shared the following statement with Becker's: "Providence respects the decision of the Providence Medical Group hospitalists who work at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center who have elected to unionize. We have a long history of working collaboratively with unions that caregivers have chosen to represent them, and we're committed to negotiating in good faith over the terms of a first contract."