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Legacy Health intends in the coming months to shutter several operations, including six clinics, the latest hit to health care capacity in the Portland area.
Legacy-GoHealth Urgent Care clinics in the Pearl District and on North Williams Avenue will close Nov. 15, Legacy Health said in a statement. So will all all four Legacy-GoHealth Urgent Care clinics in Washington state.
The Legacy Health system, one of the largest health care providers in the area, is culling operations at Portland-area hospitals too.
At Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, the Legacy Devers Eye Institute as well as an outpatient neuro-rehabilitation program will close early next year. The hospital will narrow the scope of its outpatient rehab services in general.
Meanwhile, the Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center is set to shutter Jan. 9. And the Legacy Salmon Creek Pain Clinic will stop operating on March 20.
The system said that eight Legacy-GoHealth Urgent Care centers in Oregon will remain fully open.
In a Oct. 15 note to staff reviewed by WW, Legacy COO Jonathan Avery attributed the changes to “significant financial pressures that require difficult but necessary choices.”
“Rising labor and supply costs, stagnant reimbursement rates, recent legislative actions, including mandated nurse-to-patient ratios and broad application of presumptive eligibility for financial assistance, as well as broader uncertainties in health care continue to challenge our sustainability and force us to make tough decisions about how and where we provide care,” Avery wrote.
Reached for comment, the Oregon Nurses Association said Avery’s explanation felt disingenuous, given past indications from Legacy suggesting it was in OK financial health, and the “lavish” salaries it doles out to its executive team. Meanwhile, ONA spokeswoman Myrna Jenson wrote in an email, nurse staffing ratios improve health outcomes and mean less employee turnover.
“Ultimately,” Jenson wrote, “if Legacy can’t provide patients with the care they deserve, there is something wrong with their corporate business model.”
The closures, first reported by The Lund Report, come following months of layoffs at other area health institutions, from CareOregon to Providence Health & Services to Legacy itself, which this summer eliminated 40 positions and restructured its executive team.
Just this week Providence said it would shutter several occupational health clinics. Each closure, Jensen said, would lead to longer patient wait times and patients entering the health care system at a sicker stage.
Legacy’s financial soundness has been a matter of intense scrutiny over the past several years, as its crosstown rival Oregon Health & Science University weighed a purchase. That deal feel through
In the statement to staff, Avery, the executive, said Legacy has eliminated 200 positions over the past three years, but that the system was still projected to lose approximately $38 million this fiscal year.
The decision to close the various operations comes after a review this summer, in which leaders from across Legacy’s hospitals, Legacy Medical Group and the system office conducted a detailed review of programs and clinics “where financial performance is most challenged,” Avery wrote. “This work was also informed by goals such as aligning services with hospital and campus priorities, improving efficiency across sites, minimizing disruption for Legacy Medical Group patients and exploring new care models that support cost-effectiveness and sustainability.”
He did not say how many employres would be losing their jobs as a result of the closures, nor did a spokesperson for the hospital system, when asked. The Oregon Nurses Association did not as of Friday know how many of its members would be affected either.
Following a unionization wave, the Oregon Nurses Association is in numerous first contract negotiations with Legacy Health.
Early this week, one of the union’s bargaining units authorized a potential strike, though it would need to give 10 days’ notice before doing so.
