PeaceHealth, the Vancouver-based health system that runs 10 hospitals in the Northwest, is laying off about 500 lab workers.

Peacehealth disclosed the cutbacks to the state on Tuesday, days after closing a deal to sell its outreach laboratory services business to a New Jersey company. Quest Diagnostics purchased 11 PeaceHealth labs and will manage several others.

Quest will presumably rehire some of the laid off PeaceHealth employees. Peacehealth spokeswoman Marci Marshall said Quest will seek to fill 275 of the 500 positions.

Nearly 190 of the layoffs will take place in Oregon, mostly out of Springfield, where PeaceHealth operates Sacred Heart Riverbend Hospital.

PeaceHealth, like all hospital systems, faces an uncertain future as Congress debates repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Many hospitals have enjoyed boom times since Obamacare became law. Hospital revenues and profits surged as the number of uninsured patients plummeted.

PeaceHealth's Sacred Heart Riverbend Hospital in Springfield, for example, saw its charity care expenditures drop to just $4.7 million in the second quarter of 2016, the most recent data available. Five years ago that number was $23.3 million.

Given the political and financial uncertainty, PeaceHealth is considering alternatives to business as usual.  

"Healthcare is in an era of transformation, including in laboratory services," the company said in a written statement. "Technology advancements, competition, regulations, the need for sustained capital investment, and other factors have created profound challenges."

PeaceHealth generated total revenue of $2.2 billion in 2016 and employs about 16,000. Its major hospitals include the Sacred Heart Riverbend in Springfield, Sacred Heart University in Eugene and PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver.

-- Jeff Manning

503-294-7606, jmanning@oregonian.com

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