PeaceHealth has notified 59 Clark County employees that their positions will be eliminated when the health system hands over some of its laboratory operations to New Jersey-based Quest Diagnostics later this spring.
The Vancouver-based health system and Quest in February announced that Quest will acquire the outreach laboratory services operations of PeaceHealth Laboratories (services in all outside clinics) and will manage 11 labs, which PeaceHealth will continue to own, within the PeaceHealth medical centers in Oregon, Washington and Alaska.
In announcing the agreement, which is set to be finalized in May, PeaceHealth officials said they would lay off about 500 of the system’s 900 lab employees. Affected employees, which include 59 local employees, were notified in February and given at least 60 days notice, said Kevin Snyder, PeaceHealth system vice president of communications.
As Quest continues its assessment of lab operations, additional layoffs may be announced, Snyder said. Earlier this week, PeaceHealth announced an additional 85 layoffs in Oregon. Still, PeaceHealth officials expect the total number to be about 500, Snyder said.
The layoffs include a variety of positions, including lab managers, phlebotomists, technicians and couriers. Quest Diagnostics expects to add up to 275 positions, primarily in Oregon and Washington, said Wendy Bost, Quest spokeswoman. She did not provide details on how many of those positions would be located in Clark County.
Quest already operates two rapid-response labs in Washington (Puyallup and Fife) and three in Oregon (Portland, Salem and Roseburg), as well as a clinical lab in Seattle. The added positions will be spread across that area, Bost said.
Quest has held job fairs and posted available positions to its website, she said. The Quest website currently has 13 Vancouver job postings, the majority of which with the PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center address.
“We’ve also worked with PeaceHealth to make caregivers aware of the positions and how to apply for them,” Bost said. Qualified PeaceHealth employees are being given priority status in the interview scheduling process, she added.
Quest recently began extending offers to candidates, but it’s unclear when the company will have all positions filled, Bost said.
“This is a transition that’s going to take several weeks, if not several months,” she said. “We’re making progress, and we’re encouraged by the progress we’re making, but it’s going to take some time.”
