A farewell message

As you may have heard, I'm retiring as President and CEO of St. Charles. This will be my last monthly column before my successor, current Chief Operating Officer Michael Hartke, takes over this space in July.

How to convey all that's on my mind and all I want to say? Let me start by repeating myself :

These four years as St. Charles president and CEO have been the highlight of my career. Hands down. I'm so proud of our essential and growing impact on Central Oregon and how we've stabilized and strengthened ourselves as an organization.

When I took on the role of interim President and CEO in 2022, St. Charles faced significant workforce shortages and financial challenges that were the result of many factors, most prominently the COVID-19 pandemic. After three years of response, recovery and reorientation to a new normal, I felt the health system needed to shore up those two issues and get back to our core mission: Caring for the communities of Central Oregon and strengthening St. Charles so it is prepared to serve our region for decades to come.

As your locally owned and operated, nonprofit health care provider, that is our obligation.

Over the past four years we've made good on that. We've rebuilt our workforce, which now has low vacancy and strong rates of retention, and we've turned around our finances, strengthening our balance sheet and ending last year as one of the few health systems in Oregon with a positive operating margin.

With our people in place and our finances headed in a better direction, we turned our focus to stabilizing and expanding critical services in the region. We launched urology and gastroenterology practices and opened an Infectious Disease clinic, a clinic at Mt. Bachelor and two community pharmacies - one in Madras and one in Prineville, preserving access to pharmacy services for people in Jefferson and Crook counties.

In 2025, we integrated The Center - a longtime provider of orthopedic, neurosurgical, occupational and physiatric care in Central Oregon - into St. Charles, keeping dozens of specialists in practice locally and preserving a range of services that otherwise would've been at risk for leaving the community.

And earlier this year, we opened a new Cancer Center in Redmond, which will serve up to 300 patients daily. Thanks to an innovative pilot program we developed - and leveraging a 20-year track record of clinical excellence - many of those patients get automatic insurance approvals with no delays, and peace of mind at a time when every day matters.

We're planning further into the future, too. In partnership with OHSU, we launched Central Oregon's first graduate medical education program, the Three Sisters Rural Track Program, which brings new doctors to the area for their residency, significantly increasing the chance they'll choose to stay here and practice in a part of the state where many towns have a shortage of providers. The program is now in its second year, but it will have a transformative impact on the future of health care in the region.

Indeed, there is no shortage of things that have happened over the past four years that fill me with pride: Teaching local kids about helmet safety. Reducing loneliness and fostering a sense of belonging. Collaborating with other local providers in the fight against measles. Helping our caregivers put down roots in Central Oregon. Presenting the first physical representation of St. Charles' land acknowledgment statement in Madras. The list goes on and on.

Somehow, we've done those things while providing more care than ever before - which is probably no surprise to those of you who have experienced Central Oregon's growth over the past decade or two. That growth is reflected in our volumes: We saw 188,239 unique patients in 2025, up 15.6% from 2022. Emergency room visits have increased 10.8% in the same period, and surgeries have jumped 33.6%. Our caregivers had just over 1.4 million patient encounters in 2025 - a 44.6% increase since 2022.

That's a lot of patients. More importantly, that's a lot of people.

That's what I'm most proud of: The sheer amount of care St. Charles has provided to Central Oregonians, and the impact that care has had on their lives and our communities. As it says in our 2025 Annual Report, life happens in our clinics and hospitals - from beginning to end and all points in between. We are honored to be there alongside the people we serve.

And I am honored to have served alongside our incredible caregivers these past four years. But it is time for me to move on and enjoy the retirement I delayed when I took this job. The organization is in good shape and on the right course, and those caregivers are in good hands with Michael Hartke at the helm.

Thank you, as always, for reading, and for your interest in St. Charles.

Sincerely,
Steve