Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital closed its inpatient pediatric unit on Friday, adding a new hurdle for Sonoma County parents who may now need to drive their children farther for overnight hospital care.
The hospital was forced to shutter the unit and convert it into adult inpatient care because of budget constraints and President Donald Trump’s cuts to Medicaid, according to Dr. Eric Hodes, chief medical officer at Providence Sonoma County. Hodes said the pediatric unit has also seen fewer patients compared with adult units.
“This decision was not made lightly or in haste,” Hodes said in an email this week.
The hospital’s emergency department will still see pediatric patients, but children needing nonemergency overnight care will now be transferred more than 50 miles south to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, according to Dr. Hodes. He said patients may also be transferred to other regional hospitals, such as UC Davis Children’s Hospital and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford.
Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center is now the closest option for nonemergency overnight pediatric care, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Dr. Milana PeBenito, a local family medicine physician, told the paper she was concerned some families wouldn’t go to Kaiser because “the community has the impression that if you’re not a Kaiser member you can’t go there.” Kaiser told the outlet, “Our emergency departments are open to all.”
Memorial Hospital’s closure comes as hospitals across the country shutter pediatric units, with a 26.6% drop in units between 2008 and 2022, according to a JAMA Pediatrics study. Only 4.4% of adult inpatient units closed during that period. Pediatric inpatient unit closures were more acute in rural areas, soaring above 50% during that same time period.
The study said that the pandemic was partially to blame for the closures but also suggested that hospitals are removing pediatric beds because adult beds generate more revenue. Hodes did not answer SFGATE’s question on whether adult beds were more profitable at Memorial Hospital but said that the eight-bed pediatric unit averages less than two patients per day and that maintaining a “near-empty” unit has become increasingly difficult for the not-for-profit hospital. On Monday, two patients were being cared for at the inpatient pediatric unit, Hodes said.
“This is a very low daily census,” Hodes said. “Repurposing the underutilized pediatric beds to increase vital capacity for adults who are most at risk for hospitalization will support our regional level II trauma center … and other complex clinical services.”
Pediatric unit closures could quicken after Trump signed a law last year that cuts nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years in order to extend tax breaks. Children make up about half of Medicaid enrollees, according to KFF Health News. Hodes said Trump’s cuts will make running a hospital “even more challenging — requiring health systems like Providence to find new ways to meet the greatest needs with limited resources.”
Memorial’s unit shift comes as it faces financial pressure. According to the Press Democrat, the hospital has been losing money for three years, including spending $84.7 million more than its revenue between 2024 and 2025.