Humboldt County Hospital Workers Call on Providence to Keep Open Rehab Center Citing Seismic Bill on Gov. Newsom’s Desk
Stock photo of Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]
The National Union of Healthcare Workers is calling on Providence to keep its rehabilitation center open, citing a bill awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature that eases seismic requirements for hospitals. Providence lobbied in support of SB 1119, which would effectively waive seismic requirements for two years at the General Hospital campus in Eureka, where Providence houses its Acute Rehabilitation Unit.
The bill, which passed both the Assembly and State Senate last week, could be signed into law by Gov. Newsom later this month. Yet, despite lawmakers acting to provide more time for Providence to achieve seismic compliance so that it can maintain a critical community service in Humboldt County, the hospital chain announced last month that it would shutter the rehab center and move services to a Brius nursing home.
Providence made no mention of the bill in its recent news release announcing the impending closures:
“Currently, acute rehabilitation services are located at the General Hospital campus in Eureka but due to the state’s mandated seismic (earthquake) structural standards, the General Hospital campus does not meet those standards and will no longer be able to provide inpatient services after 2024.”
“Providence has no reason to close its rehabilitation center, and we call on the company to immediately reverse its decision,” said Kellie Shaner, a monitor tech at St. Joseph Hospital. “Providence just successfully lobbied to buy more time to meet seismic standards only to now claim that it has no choice other than to close medical services that Humboldt County residents have depended on for decades.”
On August 20, 2024 Providence announced its intent to close its Acute Rehabilitation Unit in Eureka. The rehab center provides intensive physical, occupational, and speech therapy services — in addition to wraparound social services — in an inpatient setting and is designed for those who are recovering from critical injuries, strokes, surgeries and diseases.
Instead of providing the service directly, Providence announced that it would partner with Brius, a nursing home company that has been repeatedly cited by state authorities for patient care violations and controls a monopoly of skilled nursing facilities in Humboldt County. Rehabilitation services would be moved to the Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, which has been fined for failing to self-report abuse,
Providence’s plan to close its rehab center comes on the heels of its decision to sell its outpatient laboratory services in Humboldt County and shutter its birthing center at Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna.
“Since taking over for St. Joseph Health, Providence has continued to cut services in Humboldt County,” said Willow Svien, an occupational therapist at St. Joseph Hospital. “As local healthcare workers, we’re determined to keep care in our communities, and we will hold Providence accountable when it puts its bottom line over the needs of our patients.”
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“Since taking over for St. Joseph Health, Providence has continued to cut services in Humboldt County,” said Willow Svien, an occupational therapist at St. Joseph Hospital. “As local healthcare workers, we’re determined to keep care in our communities, and we will hold Providence accountable when it puts its bottom line over the needs of our patients.”
Well, now, and then there’s what I would say:
“After working 6 months in Redwood Hospital and being harassed and abused by nearly every member of the staff, while being paid a low hourly rate with no benefits, no guaranteed hours and no Supervisor on site, I accepted a position in Butte County for $10 more/hour, and benefits, and left.”
Don’t work there. Don’t go there for any reason. Providence would never be my choice for services, and, in Humboldt, there is no alternative…
Providence does not care about its employees, the state of community services, or healthcare in general, at all…
All they care about is money. Period.
You would be better off going to Arcata and getting on a plane, and flying to SF. Take an Uber to UCSF…
Providence/St Joseph’s is the worst facility I ever worked in, including some real doozies like Eastern Plumas and Mendocino Coast…
My rule is: If there’s a Union, there’s a problem.
I back that 100 percent. All you get is a bill and lousy health care
The folks from Humboldt that I travel with to S.F. have the best health care available. We meet on the free shuttle that drops us at the front door of the VA. Our total cost for this service? 0 dollars and 0 cents. The total cost for my 6 hour surgical procedure and five day hospital stay receiving the best care available? 0 dollars and 0 cents. Just to think, all you have to do for all this free stuff is sacrifice a few years to serve your Country. What you receive is in proportion to what you gave.
Let me just start the morning by saying how absolutely thankful I am that I live in this wonderfully free country full of choices and top medical care. Well, for those who can afford it that is. Thank the lord we aren’t forced to be socialist with universal healthcare like many, many other countries. We have choices, after all!! Sure we can go bankrupt when our appendix burst or someone runs a stop sign and totals you and your car. But choices!!! Thankfully we get the gift of being at the mercy of for profit medical care that has absolutely no limits to fuck any community over in any way possible to continue to make more and more profits for less and less services. I love this country!!
American Healthcare is a shambles.
Older Americans travel for care, the more serious, the more the travel…
Young people can’t find Prenatal, have to deal with Pharmacies Clogged by sufferers, and in general, poor quality ER services.
If you can’t pay, get Medi-Cal, and wait patiently. If you are old and have Cancer, find a driver and a home-care assistant.
It is impossible for me to believe that Healthcare will ever be the same as it was 40 years ago, but it’s equally impossible to believe that Providers will ever allow Socialized Medicine to exist, and they have an enormous lobby, now as then…
Corporations have been favored by the payers, and the Government is the biggest payer of all!
Imagine a world without greed and fraud, since fraud bleeds $100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion) (estimated) per year in false billings, fraud payments and errors from Medicare alone…
Take off those Rose-Colored Glasses, the Faith Based Corporation is only in it for the dough…
I don’t know if anyone has noticed but China has a whole new model for their country, based off ours but trying alot harder to keep out corruption. Working good to. We have a excellent system for our government to function. There’s just to much corruption.
And where did this rosy information come from? The PRC would not need anti-corruption initiatives if it didn’t have so much official corruption to start. In fact
corruption is so endemic in the politics of the PRC that no information, no statement, nothing from them can be taken at face value. Ever.
“But it also sidesteps more urgent reforms of the public health system, and shifts focus away from the government’s own responsibility – at a time when it may have little ability to fund reform, he said.
Despite the country’s impressive economic growth of recent decades and efforts to improve oversight in the health care sector, experts have long pointed to insufficient funding for public hospitals and low salaries for medical workers as areas that incentivize unscrupulous and profit-driven behavior in hospitals and are in need of reform.”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/24/china/china-healthcare-corruption-crackdown-intl-hnk/index.html
St. Joseph hospital is being run by money grubbing people that don’t give a rat’s butt about the hard-working nurses and staff. Their fingers stick to the almighty dollar. As this continues patients are losing out on their much-needed care. I pray this will change for the better in the near future.
Every single hospital in the country is dancing to the tune of the ACA. The only discretion they have left is to out bureaucracy the government. And “money grubbing” is name of that game. Too bad, so sad but there it is. It’s a sign of the times.
It sure is a sign of the times Yabut, but not a very good one.