Community Health & Wellness

Families reeling after Franciscan announces closure of pediatric rehab clinic

Posted on March 24th, 2026 By: Conor Wilson

Shalyn Green-Gaden was devastated when she learned a clinic that provides physical therapy to her 8-year-old daughter, Peyton, planned to close in April.

Peyton, who has autism and Down syndrome that will require lifelong care, has been a patient at the St. Michael Medical Center Pediatric Outpatient Rehabilitation Clinic in Silverdale since her birth.

Like other families raising children with disabilities, Green-Gaden described the upcoming closure of the clinic as gutting. It is one of the only providers of its kind in Kitsap County. Many parents say it is a lifeline and worry what its loss will mean for their children.

“Everyone has been in tears,” Green-Gaden said. “We don’t know what we’re going to do. It’s heartbreaking for everybody.”

Shalyn Green-Gaden gets a hug from her daughter Peyton, 8, at their home in Bremerton on Tuesday, March 17, 2026.

90-minute trip to get care

The clinic had become a second home for Peyton, Green-Gaden said. Her daughter goes to three appointments per week for speech, occupational and physical therapy and made tremendous strides. In the past year, she started speaking to others for the first time without the need of an assistance device, her mother said.

The family can get Peyton from their Bremerton home to her Silverdale medical appointments in about 15 minutes, while juggling her school schedule. Next month, that will likely be impossible.

A case manager showed them options for Peyton to continue care that would take their Medicaid insurance, Green-Gaden said. Nearly all are in Seattle. Many have waitlists that are weeks or months long.

Green-Gaden said she worries what all this will mean for her daughter. She fears she may miss out on vital care, causing her to regress and lose skills she has built over the last eight years. Making the 90-minute drive to Seattle multiple times a week, she said, will be a financial hurdle.

“Seeing that list made my heart drop,” Green-Gaden said.

“We’re already financially struggling as it is,” she continued. “How are we supposed to be able to do that [drive] weekly, and multiple times a week at that.”

Hospitals face financial pressure

Patients of the pediatrics rehabilitation clinic, located on the St. Michael Medical Center campus in Silverdale, were first notified of its closure on March 9. The clinic plans to hold appointments through April 24.

The closure comes as hospital leaders in Washington have continued to express pessimism about the financial state of the industry. Many hospitals have remained unprofitable since the COVID-19 pandemic. Contributing to those losses are rising labor and supply costs, increasing claim denials and chronic underpayment from Medicare and Medicaid.

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health said its 10-hospital network, which includes St. Anthony in Gig Harbor, averaged $275 million in annual operating losses from 2022 through 2026. State and federal policy changes, including cuts to the Medicaid insurance program that take effect next year, are decreasing already thin operating margins.

Chad Melton, the president of St. Michael, said shuttering the rehabilitation clinic is necessary to adapt to ongoing financial pressures. The closure will impact five therapists. Melton said some may be able to transfer to other VMFH positions.

The hospital, he said, also plans to work with the roughly 200 impacted patients to ensure a smooth transition to other providers.

“We recognize the importance of these services to local children and families,” Melton said.

Eight-year-old Peyton laughs while playing with horse and dog figurines with her mom Shalyn Green-Gaden at their home in Bremerton on Tuesday, March 17, 2026.

Provider shortage

The loss of the clinic is a particularly painful blow in Kitsap County, where few providers offer speech, physical and occupational therapy for children with disabilities.

Dedra Miller, executive director of Holly Ridge Center in Bremerton, said that shortage of providers is especially acute for families covered by Medicaid, the government insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities.

Reimbursement rates — what the insurance company pays the provider — are typically lower for Medicaid patients than the actual cost of service. That means clinics and hospitals tend to lose money on each Medicaid patient in their care.

Private clinics often decided to restrict Medicaid patients to remain in business, Miller said. This not only restricts access to low-income families, but puts more financial pressure on providers who do take Medicaid.

For many families in Kitsap County, the only way to get physical therapy care that is covered by insurance is to drive to a neighboring community, Miller said. Holly Ridge refers many children graduating from its infant-toddler program — which supports children with disabilities ages 3 and younger — to clinics in Gig Harbor, Tacoma and Seattle. That distance creates a barrier, especially if a family needs multiple appointments in a week.

The lack of access, Miller said, is unfortunate because these services can make a huge difference in a child’s speech and mobility. While intervention between birth and age 5 presents the largest window to improve future life quality, Miller said children at any age can benefit from routine physical or speech therapy.

“I could not overstate what a direct impact all these therapies make for anyone with disabilities,” she said. “Timely support and service is a huge benefit. It’s life-changing.”

‘As a parent that breaks your heart’

Darci Bassett, a substitute teacher and para-educator in Bremerton, came home and cried when she heard St. Michael was closing its clinic. She has not yet found a way to break the news to her 5-year-old son, Clark.

“I’m sure somewhere this makes sense to someone. I’m sure the numbers don’t add up and this is the only logical solution. But I have to wonder if [hospital leaders] have spent any time in that clinic,” she said. “The work the therapists do there, it changes lives.”

Clark has autism and mobility issues, Bassett said. He abruptly lost his speech while the family lived in Idaho, and they noticed he was “toe walking” and unable to move in a “heel down” position after the family moved to Kitsap County three years ago.

The family got a referral to go to Mary Bridge’s Children’s Therapy Center in Renton for occupational and physical therapy before moving to a provider in Gig Harbor. When their therapist left, they started going to the clinic at St. Michael’s.

Bassett said their therapist is “an absolute hero,” who knows Clark like no one else. A few years ago, she said, he struggled to hold a pencil. Because of his occupational therapy, he is able to write and be in peer-level kindergarten class.

If the family needs to travel far for physical therapy, Bassett worries they may have to stop that care. Clark also receives applied behavioral analysis therapy, which helps treat symptoms of his autism, four days a week.

Balancing both could be tricky if they are not close together, she said. It would likely require Clark missing school or her missing work. But without physical and occupation therapy, Basset worries Clark will fall behind his peers.

“As a parent that breaks your heart,” she said. “No one wants to see your kids struggle.”

Shalyn Green-Gaden with her kids (left to right) Makayla, 10, Peyton, 8, and Cooper, 4, at their home in Bremerton on Tuesday, March 17, 2026.

Parents hope to save clinic

Bassett said she knows there may not be anything that she or anyone else can do to stop the clinic from closing next month. But she said a group of moms with children at the clinic will try to fight it.

They planned a protest outside the clinic on Friday, March 20. Many wrote directly to Melton, frustrated over the clinic’s closure. Daleah Turrieta is one of them. Her daughter, Mia, has cerebral palsy and is a clinic patient.

“I hope they take a second look at that clinic and realize there’s more than just profits to be made,” she said. “Our kids already have so many setbacks and this society is already not built for them. That’s the only place where everybody is like them.”

Green-Gaden said the parents were trying to band together. She felt like the hospital’s cited reason for the closure was insincere. She said it left her angry and feeling like they did not care about their children. Without an idea of what she’ll do if the clinic closes, she has vowed to make her voice heard.

“Special-needs moms and parents are a different breed,” she said “We don’t go without fighting.”