St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka. | File photo.

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On Wednesday the Outpost started receiving messages from employees of both Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna and St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka saying that Providence Health & Services, the not-for-profit Catholic health care outfit that merged with St. Joseph Health in 2016, planned to close down all of its outpatient lab facilities across California.

“Ever since Providence took over, they have outsourced and/or centralized services that used to be local,” wrote one employee, who asked to remain anonymous. “Microbiology is now sent to Napa, pathology and cytology are sent to Santa Rosa. Now, all [Providence-owned] outpatient labs in California (where people have their blood drawn for testing requested by doctors) are closing. Where will patients go to have their blood drawn? This is an outrage!”

This afternoon, Providence issued a press statement confirming its plans to close its outpatient lab service line throughout the state. 

“They decided this 2 weeks ago and just let the phlebotomists know today that they will be closing March 15th,” the anonymous source told the Outpost via email.

As of the time of publication, Providence’s own website still boasts, “Providence is committed to providing efficient and convenient laboratory services. Throughout our system of medical centers, phlebotomists and clinical laboratory scientists provide prompt and comprehensive laboratory and radiology services to patients of all ages.”

According to the press release, below, all local employees at the outpatient lab will be retained by Providence and won’t lose any wages or benefits, though the statement doesn’t say what jobs those employees will have after the labs close.

Here’s the press release from Providence:

Following a thorough assessment, Providence has announced that it will close the outpatient lab service line, which supports community outreach at several hospitals throughout California. This change will help us focus on our strengths of delivering care and partnering with other organizations whose primary business is lab services.

In Humboldt County, St. Joseph Hospital and Redwood Memorial Hospital will close our outpatient service line. We will maintain outpatient testing services that support care in the hospitals. We will also continue to provide inpatient and emergency department testing, as well as lab testing associated with our hospital outpatient departments’ patient care.

All employees who support the outpatient lab service line at affected locations will be retained by Providence and continue working as Providence employees with no changes to their wages or benefits.

Providence recognizes the importance of laboratory services for members of our community. We did not enter into this decision lightly and are confident that other providers of these services will be able to support our community’s future needs.

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