Providence is considering shutting down the inpatient pediatric wing at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, a move that could force hundreds of local families to seek care for their children in San Francisco or Oakland, according to multiple sources in the unit and others familiar with the provider’s plans.
The union representing a dozen nurses who work in the 10-room pediatric wing said Providence officials have been discussing the move for weeks but have been “pretty tight-lipped” about details of the plan.
Providence, in a set of statements this week to The Press Democrat, stopped short of acknowledging any plans to close the wing and said no decision had been made about the future of the unit.
It handles non-emergency medical care for young patients admitted for overnight stays. Hospital officials say the unit sees an average of two admitted patients daily, but sources inside the unit say some of the beds are used for a greater number of patients, including those in post-surgery observation and post-partum care.
Hospital officials have indicated to staff in a series of recent meetings that the unit is not financially sustainable.
In one of its prepared statements, Providence said it, like other health care providers, is experiencing “strong headwinds” in the current business landscape. Providence, based in Washington state, controls more than 51 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics across seven western states, including three hospitals in Sonoma County, as well as Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa.
Nurses in the pediatrics wing say they’re being told that young patients can be admitted to other facilities in the “community,” in San Francisco or Oakland.
“I don’t consider that the community,” said one pediatrics nurse, who asked that her name not be used for fear of retaliation by her employer.
The pediatrics nurse said Providence has made it clear it no longer wants to support a service that’s “losing millions a year, that’s what they’re telling us.”
Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
In an emailed statement Wednesday, Garry Olney, chief executive of Providence Northern California, cited in particular the “expected financial impacts” of President Donald Trump’s recently passed tax, policy and spending bill. Provisions in the law are anticipated to put additional strain on suburban and rural hospitals.
Olney said Providence is “thoughtfully evaluating” operations at Memorial Hospital to understand how to best serve the local community.
“While this does include determining the right model of care for pediatrics in the community, these conversations are ongoing, and we don’t have specifics to share currently,” Olney said his statement.
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday was notified by a local physician about the possible closure. The Press Democrat has reached out to both the county Department of Health Services and the state Department of Health Care Services to determine whether Providence has informed them of possible closure plans.
Supervisor Rebecca Hermosillo, whose district includes the Memorial Hospital campus, said Providence has reached out to her staff to schedule a meeting. She said hospitals nationwide are anticipating immense financial strain under the forthcoming terms of President Trump’s tax and spending law.
“We need a hospital that serves our oldest and our youngest,” Hermosillo said. “But I understand hospitals have been losing money for a long time and it will get exponentially worse with the impacts of HR 1.”
Closure of Memorial Hospital’s pediatrics wing would represent Providence’s latest contraction in local services, following the closure of an urgent care center in southwest Santa Rosa; the elimination of the three outpatient laboratories in the North Bay, two in Sonoma and one in Napa counties; and closure of the maternity ward at Petaluma Valley Hospital in 2023.
Providence agreed to pay almost $10 million to a local health care district to get out of its contractual obligation to operate the maternity ward at the Petaluma hospital.
In May, Henry and Marilyn Hansel, owners of Sonoma County’s largest network of auto dealerships, donated $10 million to the foundation that supports Memorial Hospital to help fund construction of a health care hub for cardiology, imaging and women’s health.
Peter Brackner, president of Staff Nurses Association, the union that represents 782 registered nurses at Memorial Hospital, including about a dozen nurses in the inpatient pediatric unit, said Providence addressed the unit’s future during an all-hands staff meeting on Aug. 20. The issue came up at another staff meeting earlier this month.
Brackner said Scott Ciesielski, chief administrative officer at Providence Sonoma County, told nurses the pediatric wing’s “current model is not sustainable” and that the 10-bed wing had a daily average census of 1.96 patients.
Brackner said Providence has been unwilling to share any substantive information about its plans for the wing since the Aug. 20 townhall. At that meeting, Ciesielski discussed bolstering outpatient support for pediatric patients and the possibility of having other inpatient departments absorb young patients.
“They’re looking at dates that this could move forward,” Brackner said. “They said they’re not planning on rushing anything and want to look at what is best for the hospital.”
The pediatric wing cares for young patients with less intensive ailments, including jaundice in newborns; appendectomies; trauma patients (motor vehicle accidents); orthopedic issues such as broken bones; asthma; urinary tract infections; pneumonia, sepsis and croup.
Marybeth Takacs, a nurse who has worked in the Memorial Hospital pediatrics wing for more than 20 years, said Providence officials have been talking about the wing as a financial burden for about two years.
She said officials often point out that more hospital beds are needed to alleviate overcrowding in the emergency department. While some some 500 children are treated each month in the emergency department, only between 40 to 50 are admitted into the hospital.
But those numbers, Takacs said, do not reflect the true value of the wing. During the coronavirus pandemic, the pediatrics wing was used for COVID-19 patients and during the post-pandemic years some of the beds were used for adult patients.
The latter arrangement was difficult as it is not always appropriate to mix pediatric patients with some adult patients, she said, adding that the hospital is always looking for more patient beds.
“They want those (pediatric) beds for other people but not little people,” she said.
The pediatrics nurse who asked to remain anonymous said talk of eliminating the wing has resulted in some nurses leaving for jobs elsewhere, including Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center.
Kaiser, a members-only health care system, is the only other hospital in Sonoma County with an inpatient pediatrics unit. Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, the region’s other major hospital does not, nor do smaller hospitals in Healdsburg, Petaluma and Sonoma.
Memorial Hospital’s pediatrics wing treated 507 children last year and more than 300 so far this year, according to the unit nurse. She said that while it’s true that pediatric patients often do not fill all the beds in the wing, the unit often takes some children who are recovering from surgery but do not stay overnight, as well as pediatric transfers from other hospitals in Northern California.
The nurse said that after Providence shut down the maternity ward at Petaluma Valley Hospital, “we’ve been doing a lot of overflow of mothers and newborns.”
Dr. Milana PeBenito, a local family medicine physician, sent a letter to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, alerting them to the possible closure of the inpatient pediatric wing.
PeBenito said hospital operators in general are curtailing inpatient pediatric services. She said that preventive health initiatives, including flu and RSV vaccination, have annually reduced the number of sick children needing hospitalization. Meanwhile, “market forces of low reimbursement for pediatric care drive hospitals to close units that cannot pay for themselves,” she wrote.
PeBenito pointed out that Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital admits more than 400 children from Sonoma County and surrounding communities, with 85% of them are covered by federal Medicaid insurance.
“With the closure of (Memorial Hospital’s) pediatric unit, 240 children annually are projected to require transfer to the nearest inpatient pediatric hospital – in Oakland or San Francisco,” she wrote.
PeBenito told The Press Democrat Friday that Providence is under a great deal of financial pressure because a large share of its patients are either uninsured or covered by Medi-Cal, the state’s version of the federal Medicaid program. She said Medicaid cuts under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill could further destabilize Providence and other local health care providers.
“It’s not entirely Providence’s fault,” PeBenito said. “Every single hospital is facing a dire outlook right now.”
Olney, in his statement this week, said Providence can’t “do everything.”
“As we plan for the future, we recognize that we are not called to do everything, we are called to do what we can and do it well,” he said. “This may mean recognizing that a like-hearted organization is better positioned to deliver a program or service in our community.”
On Thursday, Providence said in a statement that the wing had 8 licensed beds, an average of two patients daily and that the majority of those patients are in the hospital for less than 48 hours.
Hospital officials said that for more than 20 years, most pediatric patients who come to the hospital’s emergency department are not admitted at Memorial.
Instead, they’re assessed, stabilized, and transferred to Memorial’s partner, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. Providence said in its statement Thursday no final decision has been made.
You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.
Originally Published: September 12, 2025 at 4:34 PM PDT