the hospital on Northeast Hancock Street<\/a> and lay off 310 workers on Feb. 1, 2026. The decision is \u201cdue to ongoing financial challenges,\u201d Vibra CEO Michael Kerr said in the notice, which has made it \u201cunsustainable to continue operations\u201d at the hospital.<\/p>\nOn Friday, days before the notice was filed, a KGW viewer sent a photo of a large pile of clear trash bags that they worried contained medical waste stacked near a dumpster outside the Northeast Portland hospital. However, Vibra has not confirmed that information to KGW.<\/p>\n
Vibra served patients who require long-term recovery and often have complex medical needs \u2014 such as prolonged ventilator use or infection recovery. It operates as a step between traditional hospitals, including Oregon Health & Science University, Providence and Legacy, and rehabilitation centers.<\/p>\n
KGW reached out to Metro, which is in charge of waste management for greater Portland, and a spokesperson said that they had not previously received a report about the Vibra site. However, they said the issue would better fall under the responsibility of the city and perhaps the state.<\/p>\n
“While Metro manages greater Portland\u2019s garbage and recycling system, we work closely with local and state partners to ensure that system works effectively,” Metro spokesperson Gia Ballash said. “Local jurisdictions are responsible for managing garbage and recycling collection services in their areas, which is what this issue falls under.”<\/p>\n
Ballash said she’d alerted the city of Portland and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, in case the state can provide additional support.<\/p>\n
The hospital sent an emailed statement to KGW on Tuesday, confirming the closure and saying in part:<\/p>\n
“Looking ahead, Vibra Healthcare intends to repurpose and reopen the Portland facility as an inpatient medical rehabilitation hospital once the necessary regulatory and operational steps are complete.<\/p>\n
“We do not have additional details to share at this time, but further information will be made available as the process moves forward.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Days before Vibra filed a notice announcing its closure of the Portland hospital, piles of trash bags were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-165367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}