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The National Union of Healthcare Workers is calling on Providence to reverse its decision to shutter its Acute Rehabilitation Unit at the old General Hospital, saying a bill on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk may delay the required seismic upgrades the healthcare giant cited as a reason for the closure.

Providence St. Joseph announced last month it would be closing the unit — the only one on the North Coast that’s not a subsidiary of Brius Healthcare, the for-profit skilled nursing chain that operates close to 80 facilities and that has repeatedly come under fire from state regulators — and “collaborating” with the Brius-affiliated Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Eureka to accept its patients and deliver rehabilitation services locally.

“Current acute rehabilitation services are located at the General Hospital campus in Eureka but due to the state’s mandated seismic (earthquake) structural standards, the General Hospital campus does not meet those standards and will no longer be able to provide inpatient services after 2024,” the Providence press release states, adding it had planned to move the unit to a newly constructed facility at Redwood Memorial Hospital, but construction was halted “due to various external factors” and was “no longer feasible.”

But the National Union of Healthcare Workers is wondering why Providence made the call before learning the fate of Senate Bill 1119, which would give it another two years to bring the General Hospital campus into compliance with seismic standards, if signed by Newsom. Providence, according to the union, had lobbied in support of the bill, which sought the two-year exemption specifically for three Providence facilities and passed the Senate on Aug. 26, sending it to the governor.

“Providence has no reason to close its rehabilitation center, and we call on the company to immediately reverse its decision,” said Kellie Shaner, a monitor tech at St. Joseph Hospital, in a press release from the union. “Providence just successfully lobbied to buy more time to meet seismic standards only to now claim that it has no choice other than to close medical services that Humboldt County residents have depended on for decades.”


The rehab unit provides intensive physical, occupational and speech therapy services — in addition to wraparound social services — in an inpatient setting and is designed for those who are recovering from critical injuries, strokes, surgeries and diseases, according to the union’s release.

The release goes on to note that the company Providence will now be collaborating with — the Brius Healthcare subsidiary Rockport — “has been repeatedly cited by state authorities for patient care violations and has a virtual monopoly on skilled nursing beds in Humboldt County. And the release notes the specific facility — Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness — was fined $160,000 in 2017 by state regulators for a number of violations, including keeping the facility “free of dangers that cause accidents.”

The Journal has reportedly extensively on the troubling record of Brius, its owner Shlomo Rechnitz and its local facilities, documenting the company’s refusing to accept patients locally in an effort to demand higher reimbursement rates (“The Shut Out,” July 9, 2015), its threatening to close facilities as a bargaining tool (“Bluffing,” Dec. 22, 2016), its pattern of using affiliated subsidiary companies to make large profits at the expense of patient care (“The Case of the Missing $5 Million,” Oct. 13, 2016, and “Profit and Pain,” Nov. 17, 2022).

More recently, in January, a state investigation found the 87-bed Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness had failed to honor “residents' right to a dignified existence.” Specifically, the report found the facility failed to treat two residents with respect and dignity. According to the report, one — a woman who was admitted after she’d fallen and broken her hip — had to wait 20 minutes to be assisted to the toilet. Another resident, the report states, was repeatedly given adult diapers that didn’t fit and left to “lie in bed in her wet adult diaper, clothes and linen.” The violations left the other resident feeling “like she was not important” and the other “often wet and smelling of urine,” the investigative report states.

State reports also documented three deficiencies in 2023 for failing to ensure residents are free from “significant medication errors,” safeguard medical records and meet state-mandated staffing requirements. Those followed two documented deficiencies in 2022.

The union press release points to Providence’s decision as a part of a track record, noting it came on the heels of it closing outpatient laboratory services in Eureka and closing its birthing center at Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna.

“Since taking over for St. Joseph Health, Providence has continued to cut services in Humboldt County,” said Willow Svien, an occupational therapist at St. Joseph Hospital, in the release. “As local healthcare workers, we’re determined to keep care in our communities, and we will hold Providence accountable when it puts its bottom line over the needs of our patients.”

In a statement emailed to the Journal, Providence spokesperson Christian Hill says the fate of S.B. 1119 won't change the hospital system's decision, though it's grateful for the support of the Legislature and local representatives. If Newsom does sign the bill, Hill says it would give "Providence the necessary time to decommission the building (to reach seismic compliance) while determining an appropriate use for the space."

Newsom has until Sept. 16 to sign Senate Bill 1119 into law or veto it before it would become law without his signature.