{"id":370639,"date":"2025-11-11T03:17:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T03:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/370639\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T03:17:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T03:17:14","slug":"growing-opposition-to-providence-decision-to-shutter-pediatrics-ward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/370639\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing opposition to Providence decision to shutter pediatrics ward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sonoma County pediatricians are warning of dire consequences if Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital follows through on plans to close its inpatient children\u2019s ward<\/a>, a move they say would leave families across the North Coast without local options for overnight pediatric care.<\/p>\n

Providence, which operates Santa Rosa Memorial, announced late last month that it intends to shutter the ward, citing financial pressures and low patient volume. The closure would force low-income families across Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake counties to seek care outside the area for children who need nonemergency hospital stays.<\/p>\n

At a Nov. 6 meeting, members of the Sonoma County Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Advisory Board blasted the plan and vowed to increase public pressure on Providence to reverse course. The county-appointed body advises local health officials and the Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obvious we\u2019re in somewhat of a crisis mode,\u201d said Michael Perry, a retired Santa Rosa dentist and advisory board member. \u201cWe have an underserved population that\u2019s not going to be taken care of at an acceptable level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pediatricians with Providence Medical Group estimate the inpatient unit treats about 500 patients each year. Without it, roughly 300 children annually would need to be transferred to hospitals outside Sonoma County.<\/p>\n

Board members argued the move would disproportionately harm Medi-Cal families, who already face barriers accessing specialty care, since Sutter Health\u2019s Santa Rosa hospital has no inpatient pediatric unit and Kaiser Permanente, which does,<\/strong> generally serves only members.<\/p>\n

During the advisory panel meeting, Dr. Deborah Britt, a pediatrician with Providence Medical Group, raised concerns about how the hospital plans to care for children once the ward closes.<\/p>\n

She said plans are for some infants younger than 28 days will be treated in the neonatal intensive care unit, some patients older than 14 will be placed in the adult medical-surgical unit, and children needing very short stays \u2014 eight to 12 hours \u2014 will be kept in the emergency department.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven all of that, it\u2019s anticipated that there will be about 300 kids a year that will need to be transferred to an out-of-county hospital,\u201d Britt said. \u201cSo one of our major concerns is who will accept those kids?\u201d<\/p>\n

Britt noted that during winter respiratory surges, Bay Area hospitals such as UCSF Benioff Children\u2019s in Oakland often operate at or near capacity. Transferring young patients also adds financial and emotional strain for families.<\/p>\n

The board\u2019s criticism has been building for weeks. In mid-October \u2014 about a week before Providence made its decision public \u2014 members sent a letter to county supervisors urging them to oppose the closure and request a government review of Providence\u2019s compliance with state and federal requirements. The letter also asked the county to engage state agencies to explore funding options and convene a public forum so families most affected could share their concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cSonoma County\u2019s children deserve access to safe, local, and equitable inpatient care,\u201d board chair Elizabeth Vermilyea wrote. \u201cWe ask for your leadership in ensuring that this essential service remains available to our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, Providence officials said the decision was \u201cnot made lightly or in haste,\u201d but followed a deliberative process that began several years ago.<\/p>\n

Scott Ciesielski, chief administrative officer for Providence Sonoma County, said the unit is severely underused, averaging only two pediatric patients per day. He said the wing should be reconfigured for adult patient use.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe logistical and financial challenges of maintaining a near-empty pediatric unit, while managing an increase in demand for complex adult care, have become more acute each year,\u201d Ciesielski said. \u201cRepurposing the inpatient pediatric unit to expand adult inpatient capacity where demand is significantly higher enables us to align our limited recourses with the evolving needs of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many physicians sympathetic to the hospital\u2019s financial strain still called the move short-sighted. Roughly 85% of Memorial\u2019s pediatric patients are covered by Medi-Cal, which reimburses hospitals for only about 75% of care costs \u2014 among the lowest rates in the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese closures are policy failures, not proof that children no longer need local hospital care,\u201d wrote Drs. Elizabeth Culhane and Heather Iezza, pediatricians with Providence Medical Group Santa Rosa, in a recent Press Democrat Close to Home piece<\/a>. \u201cDecisions of such profound consequence should not rest solely on a balance sheet, nor should they be made in isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board of Supervisors Chair Lynda Hopkins said she opposes the closure and encouraged the panel to contact state lawmakers, including Senate President pro Tempore Mike McGuire. McGuire did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Assemblymember Damon Connolly, D-San Rafael, called the decision \u201cdeeply concerning for families and children\u201d throughout Sonoma County.<\/p>\n

Connolly, whose district director Melissa Apuya serves on the advisory board, said families will be forced to travel long distances to get hospital care for their children. \u201cThat added stress can be overwhelming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The advisory board, Britt and other local pediatricians are urging Providence to pause its plans and work with county and state leaders to find a solution that keeps the unit open.<\/p>\n

Ciesielski said Providence has already engaged with \u201cboth internal and community stakeholders\u201d about the unit\u2019s future, but offered no indication the hospital would revisit its decision.<\/p>\n

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sonoma County pediatricians are warning of dire consequences if Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital follows through on plans to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":222739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[210,1141,178659,178658,1142,6478,162168,75495,178657,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-370639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-health-care-crisis","11":"tag-health-service-reduction","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-hospital","14":"tag-inpatient-pediatrics","15":"tag-medical-services","16":"tag-providence-sonoma-county","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115528901872638539","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}