Valley Medical Center in Renton continues down a winding, uncertain road as clinics are closed down, Medicaid funding is denied and then approved, and a lawsuit against the hospital is filed and then denied by a judge.
Following a May 12 announcement of Valley’s closing of two inpatient units, five clinics and the consolidation of two clinics in South King County by the end of June, the District Healthcare System Board of Trustees held a special meeting on June 3 to discuss the late May decision from the federal government to approve Washington state’s Medicaid funding for the calendar year 2025 — which had been originally denied in January, leading to over 100 non-union layoffs a few months earlier in March.
On June 23, the Healthcare Workers’ Union (SEIU Healthcare 1199NW) filed a lawsuit with King County Superior Court against Valley, seeking an “injunctive relief and enforcement of the Board of Trustees’ motion to pause layoffs and closures.” One of the lawsuit’s claims was that the closure of some of Valley’s clinics were “unlawful.”…