BEND — Medical providers at St. Charles Medical Group have agreed to work with St. Charles Health System and withdraw their petition before the National Labor Relations Board to form a union.

A letter withdrawing the request to form a union was filed with the NLRB just days ahead of when ballots would be mailed out to members of the medical group. A mail-in election that would have determined if members wanted to be represented by the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO was to begin Thursday and conclude March 23, according to documents on file at the National Labor Relations Board.

The medical group, which works for St. Charles Health System, called itself the Central Oregon Providers Network. The group had initially filed a petition for union representation in June. The group refiled in August to restate its support after the health system alleged that some members were in fact supervisors and were ineligible for membership.

The group of doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other health care workers said it had many issues with the hospital management that remained to be settled, the medical group said in a prepared statement through a union representative. One of those is the assertion that wages and benefits needed to be increased to attract talent to Central Oregon.

About 300 medical professionals had pledged support for the union as a way to be included in the health care discussions on patient care.

The hospital system has already changed the leadership to address provider concerns, and is working to address other concerns, according to a hospital statement.

“Our intention is to right the ship,” Dr. Mark Hallett, St. Charles Health System chief clinical officer, said in a telephone interview. “This has been a huge challenge for all concerned, and I would much rather use this as a reset so we can move forward collaboratively.”

The group of health care providers initially said that it was not seeking unionization to receive higher pay or better benefits, but to ensure, through collective bargaining that provider opinions were being heard when it came to delivering patient care.

“The act of union formation did start a conversation that was needed in the health care system,” said Dr. Michael Wahl, a radiation oncologist at the St. Charles Cancer Center, in a phone interview. “I think the new leadership at St. Charles has been receptive of the issues that have been brought to the forefront by the union.”

By canceling the unionizing effort, the hospital system and the medical group have time to solve the issues collaboratively, Hallett said.

“That’s our preferred route,” Hallett said. “We’ve heard that both compensation and contracting are the top priorities and taking action on these by working with the American Medical group consulting arm to help us with developing a compensation plan that is best practices.”