Death by a Hundred Cuts — Who Killed St. Pete’s Fitness Center?

by Paul Pickett

The story begins on a remarkably warm, sunny day in late August. Like many days this summer, I was riding my bicycle home from work, and I stopped by the Fitness Center at Providence St. Peter Hospital for a short upper body workout.

For the last several years I’ve been a member of the St. Peter Fitness Center. I joined looking for a convenient and affordable place to work on my bad back. I was pleasantly surprised to find that St. Peter offered a well-equipped and laid-back Center for the community. It included professional trainers, who worked with me on the right mix of exercises for me. It was one of St. Peter’s well-kept secrets.

When I walked into the Center on that day in August, I little suspected what awaited me. I went through my normal drill, and on my way out, I stopped to greet Bob, the trainer on duty.

“How’s it goin’?”

“Could be better,” he replied.

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“I lost my job!”

“You’re kidding, why?”

“Did you get your letter?” he replied.

I looked puzzled. A member standing near us said, “They’re closing the Center to the public, and laying off all the staff.”

Then I realized. I’d read about the cuts in The Olympian – several hundred employees accepted voluntary separation or were laid off. But why close the Fitness Center to the public? It didn’t make sense. We all paid our dues. The Center is also the Cardio Rehab Center and open to employees and volunteers. My head was spinning. How much money could they possibly save for a Center that was open anyway and paid for by members?

As my shock sunk in, I decided to find out more. What kind of cuts was St. Peter making? How was it affecting our community?

I talked to Patti, a trainer at the Fitness Center.

“I loved this job, I liked going to work every day.” Patti started in the Center when it first began 26 years ago, in 1985. “I like teaching classes like yoga. The members like it here, but now they’re sad. It was a safe place to exercise, close to the hospital.”

She said that she saw the cuts coming and opted for a voluntary separation. “Now I guess I’ll try to teach classes in Costa Rica,” she says with a smile.

But she says she feels bad for Anne, the third trainer laid off, who originally started the Center. “She started ‘Stumble Stoppers’ for the seniors. I don’t know where they will go now to find that kind of program.”

Patti didn’t have any answer for why St. Peter was closing the Center.

“They’ve been good to me as an employer. But I don’t understand how they made the decision.” She notes that all the equipment will still be there, just closed to the public. “I think it’s really silly. They’re making a big mistake.”

How did St. Peter make the decision and what other cuts were they making? I called St. Peter Public Relations Director, Deborah Shawver. I didn’t get an answer, and left a message.

At home I found the letter announcing the closure of the Center. It had an odd phrase. St. Peter said that they would focus their resources on “providing direct patient care.” So the Fitness Center, which was preventative care, is not direct patient care. Does that mean St. Peter is now focusing just on helping sick people and not on prevention? A cynical thought crossed my mind: If they make all their revenues on sick people, does prevention cut into their bottom line?

The letter invited me to talk to the manager Mike McCusker. I gave him a call. I asked him why the Center was closing. He said he thought it was because St. Peter thought there were other places people could go. “I was surprised to hear about the decision,” Mike said, “and personally I’m sad to see the community members go.”

When asked about monthly income, he said he couldn’t tell me. He did say there were about 300 members when the closure was announced, many of whom paid the $25 standard monthly fee. I asked him what the savings were other than the compensation of the three staff laid off, and he mentioned supplies and equipment repair. I asked him who made the decision, and if he was consulted about alternatives to cut costs and keep the Center open.

“I don’t know who made the decision,” he said, “and no one asked me about it.”

After several days the PR Director still hadn’t returned my call, so I called another number and got an associate.

“You’ll have to talk to Deborah,” I was told, “and she’s gone for a couple weeks.” The associate offered to forward a message that I had a deadline and wanted to hear from St. Peter about the cuts.

What did this mean to the community? I talked to some of the members. I’ve changed their names at their request.

Vincent and his wife Julie are retired and have been members for about three and a half years. Vincent had heart problems and was out of shape. Julie said thanks to the workouts at the Center, her husband has “improved immensely.”

“We made good friends here” she said. Vincent liked the trainers and the atmosphere. “They had everyone’s best interests at heart. They were always out on the floor checking that everyone was okay. There’s comfort and security here.”

Ed and Sally have been members for over four years.

“We were lifetime members of a Fitness Club,” said Ed, “but it was filthy, and I had my wallet stolen.” Sally continues: “The St. Peter Fitness Center had a welcoming and non-jock atmosphere. The trainers could start us where we were and guide us. It benefited our body and our psyche.”

Pat is also retired and has been at the center almost six years.

“My doctor told me I needed meds for my cholesterol and kidneys. Instead I joined the Center. After six months my tests were normal and I’d lost fifty pounds.”

He liked the center because he had friends there and it was more comfortable than a private center. “It was in the hospital with care close. The staff were experienced and trained. It was great for seniors – we could compare ailments!”

The members were angry about St. Peter closing the Center. Sally says, “We thought St. Peter was a pace-setter for the community, and wanted to help us take on preventative care. They claim that, then they close down this avenue.”

Vincent continues, “It’s a disservice to a community demographic. You walk through here and a high percentage are upper middle age to elderly. It’s a loss of a good thing, and there may have been a solution not explored.”

Ed says he’s disgusted. “Why cut this program? Everything is still here – is it really a cost savings? Closing it to the public may actually cost more. I’d like to see the math.”

“Are they eliminating pastoral services?” asks Vincent. “How many other departments are underfunded? What else got the axe?”

Pat wrote an open letter to the St. Peter administration. “I got 62 signatures. I asked them to consider keeping the Center open by changing its hours and a reasonable rise in the membership fee.”

He said he sent the letter to the Hospital Executive and the Chief Executive of Providence Southwest Washington, but he hadn’t gotten a reply.

“They forgot about seniors, and about wellness in general.”

Bottom line for the other members was this: the St. Peter Fitness Center was a special place, especially for seniors. It can’t be replaced with a private health club. I have to agree. But the mystery still remains: who made the decision, and why?

I still hadn’t gotten a call back from the PR Director. I decided to stop by the St. Peter administrative offices. The problem is – they are difficult to find. They aren’t listed on the website or in the phone book.

So I went by the hospital and asked at the front desk. “Do you have any kind of annual report?”

The receptionist told me no.

“Could I go by the administrative offices to get one?” The receptionist offered to call about that.

“But I’ve already called them, can you just tell me where the office is?”

The receptionist told me they could only give me a phone number.

Who else could tell me about St. Peter? I decided to dig a little on the website. I did manage to find the financial statements for Providence Health and Services. In 2010, Providence had over $8 billion in revenues. Their excess of revenues over expenses was almost a half billion dollars.

But what was happening at our own Providence St. Peter?

I called SEIU, one of the unions representing employees. They were able to direct me to financial reports filed with the State. St. Peter had a 6.6% operating margin in 2010, as compared to a 4.1% margin for Providence as a whole. In 2010 St. Peter had almost $26 million in operating profits. In the first half their operating margin had dropped to 1.3%, but they had earned $2.5 million in profits.

SEIU also pointed out that twenty Providence top executives are earning over half a million dollars, and eight earn from $1,000,000 to almost $1,800,000 a year.

SEIU also connected me with a union member who worked at St. Peter.

The story Barbie told me was remarkably like what I heard from the Fitness Center.

“It’s been mass chaos, lots of confusion. They asked for voluntary separation, but only two out of eight staff who applied were accepted. Then they reorganized and made staff rebid for the jobs. Senior workers bumped other employees. One employee got the job they bid for because of start time that allowed them to pick up their kids, and then the start time got changed to 2 hours earlier. Managers said they weren’t involved and said the HR made the decision. HR pointed to the Manager’s bosses, who pointed to the Executives. No one who actually knows how the department is run was involved in the decision-making.”

Barbie says this isn’t just happening to line staff or to her department.

“They laid off all the floor managers and made them compete for the remaining jobs. They’ve been laying off nurses and hiring lower-paid Nurse Assistants. It feels like Executives have gone from caring to being very money-oriented.”

I mentioned that I hadn’t been able to talk to any management at St. Peter.

“That’s typical St. Peter,” says Barbie. “They won’t return my phone calls or answer messages. We had a meeting with management, and the Executive canceled it because her dog was sick. But they don’t even share information with their management team.”

I asked her why she thought management operates like that.

“I don’t know,” she said. “They just seem to demand cuts but when managers make suggestions that keep people on staff they ignore them. They are non-profit, but they treat their workers worse than Capital Medical Center, who are proudly for-profit.”

Unlike a good mystery, I’ve found no resolution to this story. Providence clearly plays an extremely valuable role in the community as the operator of our largest hospital and one of the largest employers. They provide millions of dollars in free services to the indigent.

Yet, St. Peter as an organization is very opaque. The mission of Providence refers to “our compassionate service.” But why they are closing the Fitness Center and laying off workers is still a mystery. They are not in financial trouble. Some of the decisions don’t even make financial sense.

The mystery remains: why does St. Peter’s management appear to be out of touch with their operations on the ground, and with the impact of their decisions on their workers and the community?