Like many hospital systems, Providence Swedish said they are facing “multiple headwinds.” Experts warn it could mean longer waits and fewer options for patients.
SEATTLE — Several major hospital systems across the Puget Sound region are cutting hundreds of jobs, a wave of reductions that experts warn could soon lead to longer waits, fewer available services, and growing pressure on families seeking medical care.
Providence Swedish is the latest to announce significant staffing reductions, confirming 296 job cuts as hospitals brace for what leaders describe as mounting financial strain.
RELATED: Providence Swedish to cut 296 positions, citing financial challenges
Doctors, nurses, and allied health workers— who spend years training for hospital roles— are now facing widespread uncertainty, according to Cassie Sauer, CEO of the Washington State Hospital Association.
“Wages are good and the benefits are good,” Sauer noted, adding, “and for people to lose those jobs is a big deal.”
The layoffs stretch across the region’s best-known health systems. Before Providence Swedish’s announcement, PeaceHealth disclosed more than 240 layoffs, Seattle Children’s Hospital revealed plans to eliminate more than 150 jobs and Valley Medical Center confirmed about 100 reductions.
Anirban Basu, a professor of health economics at the University of Washington, said patients will likely feel the effects quickly.
When asked whether it would be harder for people to get in to see a doctor, he said, “Absolutely, absolutely, I mean the wait times will increase.”
He added that delays were already building prior to the new staffing reductions.
“Understaffing was already there, I mean, our wait times to get an appointment was much higher than what it was before the pandemic,” he said.
Sauer warns the changes may be especially visible in emergency departments.
“It’s going to be harder to move people through the hospital,” Sauer said.
However, she does not expect the quality of emergency response to decline. “You may wait longer if you’ve got a broken finger or a broken arm, but if you have a heart attack, you should still be, you know, triaged right through.”
Hospital leaders point to a growing list of financial challenges.
“The state cuts are here, and they’re big… and the Federal cuts are bigger, and they’re starting in 2027 and we know how big they are,” Sauer said.
Medicaid reductions under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act are projected to cost hospitals billions as coverage declines and reimbursements fall.
“Hospitals have to foot the bill because they can’t deny care,” Basu said.
Providence Swedish described its situation simply as “financial uncertainty.”
In the coming months, Sauer said she plans to lobby Washington state lawmakers to reverse a recent increase to hospitals’ business and occupation tax in an effort to ease financial pressures and prevent further cuts.