Closure Coming This Fall
Providence Health & Services has announced that the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland will close permanently during the first week of November. The decision will affect 20 registered nurses and three private-practice physicians who have worked in the specialized unit.
Hospital officials said the choice followed ongoing challenges with low patient volume. According to Providence, the four-bed PICU sat empty for 155 days in 2024 and frequently served only one patient at a time when in use.
Other Pediatric Services Remain
Providence emphasized that the closure does not mean St. Vincent is abandoning pediatric care altogether. The hospital will continue to operate several children’s services, including an inpatient pediatric unit, neonatal intensive care unit, Gerry Frank Center, and the Children’s Emergency Room.
The health system also said it is collaborating with the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) to help affected staff transition into other positions within Providence facilities.
Nurses Call Decision “Abhorrent”
Despite Providence’s assurances, the Oregon Nurses Association strongly condemned the timing of the closure. The group said the move is particularly dangerous given the looming respiratory virus season, when pediatric ICUs typically see spikes in patients with severe respiratory illnesses.
“This decision is misguided and abhorrent,” ONA said in a statement Tuesday.
Providence St. Vincent RN Erin Piltz echoed those concerns. “We’ve always been busy during respiratory virus season since Providence patients from across Oregon were moved to our PICU,” she told ONA. “We have also advocated for years to be cross-trained so that we can serve more than just pediatric patients and have repeatedly been told there’s no budget.”
Reliance on Other Providers
Providence leaders countered that other Portland-area hospitals are prepared to handle pediatric intensive care needs. In a statement, the health system said:
“Leaders at OHSU and Legacy have expressed their readiness to support PICU needs in the community, as they have in the past. In these challenging times for health care, we need to focus on the specialized services the community expects and relies on Providence to provide.”
Both Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and Legacy Health operate pediatric intensive care units with larger capacity. However, both systems have faced significant challenges of their own. OHSU and Legacy announced merger plans in 2023 but abandoned the deal earlier this year due to financial and operational hurdles.
Part of a Larger Trend
The St. Vincent closure is the latest in a series of service reductions by Providence. The health system has pointed to workforce shortages, inflation, and shifting demand as reasons for restructuring care.
At its Seaside hospital, Providence plans to end labor, delivery, and newborn services starting October 4, citing a decline in births and difficulty maintaining staff.
These changes reflect broader challenges across the health care industry, where many hospitals are struggling to balance budgets while continuing to provide specialized services.
Balancing Access and Costs
Providence has argued that maintaining a PICU with such low patient volume is not sustainable, especially when other hospitals can absorb the need more efficiently. Critics, however, say that logic overlooks the unpredictability of emergencies and the importance of having geographically distributed care options.
Nurses at St. Vincent warn that transferring critically ill children to other hospitals during peak respiratory season could delay care and overwhelm remaining units in the Portland metro area.
What Comes Next
Providence says it will continue working with ONA and hospital staff to ensure a smooth transition before the November closure. Discussions are also underway to redeploy nurses and physicians into other high-demand areas within Providence facilities.
For families and health advocates, however, the shutdown raises larger questions about the future of pediatric care in Oregon. With fewer specialized facilities, parents may have fewer options close to home in moments of crisis.
A Difficult Reality
The closure of St. Vincent’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit underscores the tension between financial sustainability and patient access in modern health care. Providence insists the move allows it to concentrate resources where they are most needed. Nurses and community members, meanwhile, argue that children’s health is not the place to cut corners.
As respiratory virus season approaches, those competing perspectives will be tested. For the families who may find themselves seeking critical care this winter, the absence of St. Vincent’s PICU could become more than just a policy debate — it could be a matter of life and death.
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