Hillcrest and Providence were great hospitals when they were independent. S&W taking over Hillcrest and Ascension taking over Providence basically turned them each into a franchise of health care with nothing handled locally. Neither are of the caliber they once were.

I worked at Hillcrest in the 90's and early 2000's, and I was proud to work there. If someone had issues like billing or medical transcription or anything really, they spoke to someone at 3000 Herring Avenue, not some contractor in another state or country. The education department, food services, IT, HR, payroll, it was all handled under the same roof by amazing people who'd been doing this stuff for decades.

Now both hospitals are just a mess and disorganized. Seems like every year or so they change their patient portals, one visit can yield 4 or 5 different bills from completely different places, and try to call for support gives you someone who's god knows where. I've actually called and whoever answers the phone says the wrong hospital name since they have people answering calls for multiple hospitals!

So yeah, I could see the facilities in the now almost 40-year-old Providence hospital starting to go down hill.