“OHSU’s executive leadership team takes seriously the concerns raised by Richmond Clinic members regarding workplace safety, discrimination and racism. The clinic’s dedicated Human Resources team and revised Richmond Culture Committee have been actively working to implement new processes and services -- including diversity and inclusion training and a safer, more secure feedback loop through which employees can directly share their concerns with HR -- and we have allocated substantial resources to support this important work. Our goal is to completely transform the culture at the Richmond Clinic and rebuild trust between employees and leadership. We know this will take time and are actively monitoring to ensure we are fostering a safe, welcoming and respectful work and learning environment for all.” – OHSU President Danny Jacobs, M.D., M.P.H., FACS
Background
Richmond Clinic leadership and employees, in partnership with Human Resources, have been working through workplace culture issues for more than a year. The team began by bringing in an outside consultant to evaluate and make recommendations for improvements. These recommendations helped the Richmond Clinic team immediately address some safety concerns and then look at deeper cultural changes.
OHSU has invested heavily in a newly revised Human Resources department, creating new divisions of Employee Relations and Labor Relations in Human Resources, who are providing substantially increased resources and support to Richmond clinic and all of OHSU.
AFSCME recently sent a letter to OHSU executive leadership requesting a meeting. Our Human Resources team had previously offered to meet with AFSCME, but they declined. Because OHSU is in the midst of contract negotiations with AFSCME, we have advised the union to engage with our representatives, attorney Mike Brunet and OHSU Director of Labor Relations Regina Lagging, on these important issues.