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In the News

Providence Financials Strong, Hiring Freeze Continues

The Lund Report - June 5, 2009
Despite the economic turndown, Providence’s financial position is extremely strong ... In particular, the year-to-date net operating income has exceeded budgetary projections by about $25 million.

Sacred Heart cutting 19 positions

KHQ News, Spokane - April 15, 2009
Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center & Children's Hospital and Providence Holy Family Hospital announced Wednesday that 19 leadership positions will be cut in April.

Nowhere in Providence Hospital's mission statement is the word profitability

Medford Mail Tribune, Letters to the Editor - January 15, 2009
Yes, it may prove more profitable to suspend the aquatic program in favor of therapy which can be billed at a higher rate to insurance companies or Workman's Comp. What will be lost, however, is the dedication to the needs of individuals whose welfare has been the mission of the hospital's past. Dedication vs. profitability. Which is the winner?

Providence closes deal on Fairview property

The Gresham Outlook - January 9, 2009
Providence Health System has purchased a five-acre land parcel on the southeast corner of Village and Halsey streets in Fairview with tentative plans for a 42,000-square foot medical office building.

Hospital's aquatics wellness program will close

Medford Mail Tribune - January 12, 2009
Suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and back pain that limited her movement, Roberta Heinz found relief at an aquatic wellness class at Providence Medford Medical Center … This week, she and 133 other participants in Providence's aquatics classes received notice that the hospital will discontinue the community classes Friday in the face of the current economic decline.


PW Exclusives!

Providence Health & Services cuts Staff; Budgets


Providence Health & Services has recently made news with cuts in staff and operations throughout the company’s five-state system, but the latest figures show its operations are still strongly profitable. The company took significant non-operating losses in 2008 as the financial markets crumbled, but the amount that the company lost is still far less than it has gained on investments in recent years. Given its enormous net assets, investment losses on this scale should pose no threat to program at all.

» Read more.


Providence caregivers speak out about low staffing

Higher staff-to-patient ratios have been shown to be good for patient outcomes.  Yet among large Oregon hospitals, Providence’s Portland hospitals have by far the fewest staff per patient despite having high profits.

Providence St. Vincent has the lowest staff-to-patient ratio of any large Oregon hospital as well as having the highest hospital profits in the state.  Over the past five years, St. Vincent’s profit margin has steadily climbed while their staffing levels have gone down.

» Read more.


Providence labor practices appear at odds with their principles

Unfair labor practice (ULP) charges and a refusal to clarify labor principles or allow pro-union workers access to meeting space has left many Providence Health & Services employees questioning the system’s claims to support workers’ right to form a union.

Providence employees have been organizing to form a union with SEIU Local 49 for approximately two years. Last summer, the Workers Rights Board Fair Election Oversight Commission, chaired by Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, determined that PH&S’s anti-union tactics made it impossible for hospital workers to hold a fair union election until Providence agreed to fair election ground rules.

» Read more.


Profile of Providence Health & Services in Alaska

This month ProvidenceWatch continues its series of profiles on each of the major markets in which Providence Health & Services operates. The goal is to help ProvidenceWatch readers better understand Providence’s place in the western U.S. hospital market.

With three times more operating revenue than its closest competitor, $321 million budgeted to build new facilities between 2005 and 2008, and the former Alaska Commissioner of Health and Social Services in charge of strategic development, Providence Health & Services is positioned to dominate the state’s health care market indefinitely.

» Read more.


Providence Executives Implicated in "Anticompetitive Secret Society" Break-up

Download the Agenda, Panel Schedule, Panel List, and Spouse Agenda from the May 2006 HRDI meeting The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs

Three current and former Providence Health & Services executives were member-owners of the "anticompetitive secret society" dissolved under a January 25, 2007 settlement with the Connecticut and Florida Attorneys General. John Koster, Richard Umbdenstock, and Henry "Hank" Walker were all members of the Healthcare Research Development Institute (HRDI), the for-profit entity labeled a secret society by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

According to the settlement titled an "Assurance of Voluntary Compliance," current Providence Health & Services CEO John Koster was on the HRDI board when Blumenthal began his investigation in 2005 . HRDI website records show that former Providence Health System CEO Henry "Hank" Walker became a member of the group in 2000 and then Providence Services CEO Richard Umbdenstock became a member of the group in 2002 .

» Read more.

Who We Are
ProvidenceWatch provides in-depth reporting on the tax-exempt $5.6 billion-a-year Providence Health & Services corporation for consumers, purchasers, health care workers and all who care about our health care system. It is sponsored by the members of the Service Employees International Union and is totally independent of PH&S
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What is PH&S?
Providence Health & Services was formed by the merger of Providence Health System and Providence Services. On January 1, 2006, the two companies combined to a single 5-state, 27 hospital, 46,000 employee system which operates in Alaska, Washington, Montana, Oregon, and California.

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Exclusives
ProvidenceWatch has been watching Providence since September 2006. Visitors can access our entire archive of exclusive reports on the company, including:


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