Providence St. Vincent Medical Center will permanently close its pediatric intensive care unit in November, hospital officials announced Tuesday.
Providence Health & Services Oregon said the number of children seeking the highest level of care at its hospital near Beaverton has been consistently low over the past several years.
Last year, for example, the unit was empty for 155 days, the Catholic non-profit hospital system said. On the days the four-bed unit wasn’t empty, the health system said there was typically only one patient.
The hospital chain said Providence St. Vincent has other resources like the pediatric inpatient unit, neonatal intensive care unit and its children’s emergency room to “ensure continuity of high-quality care” for patients.
“Providence is grateful there are other health care systems in Portland that provide (pediatric intensive care unit) services on a much larger scale,” the Renton, Washington-based health system said in a statement.
The non-profit said hospital leaders at Oregon Health & Science University and Legacy Health “have expressed their readiness to support PICU needs in the community, as they have in the past.”
Providence said the pediatric intensive unit at Providence St. Vincent is staffed by 20 nurses and three physicians.