MOSES LAKE — Samaritan Healthcare staff reported not being paid as they’d expected Friday morning, and the hospital’s administration indicated that a technical issue with one of the companies involved in processing the health care provider’s payroll had been the culprit that caused the issue. 

“Early this morning, we received notice that Samaritan experienced a disruption to our organization's payroll process,” said Gretchen Youngren, the hospital’s chief development and communications officer in a written statement. “Unfortunately, the disruption occurred outside of Samaritan’s accounting processes and it appears Samaritan was one of several organizations affected by the disruption.” 

Youngren said in a phone interview at about 5 p.m. Friday that most employees’ pay had been transmitted to their respective banks, and only a handful of payments remained unprocessed. The hospital was committed to resolving the issue quickly for all staff. She added that the issue is “absolutely not” indicative that Samaritan Healthcare is in poor financial condition and that the situation arose purely due to a technical issue with one of the vendors that aids in processing the health district’s payroll. Additionally, Samaritan intends to ensure all staff are taken care of and are not negatively impacted in the long term because of the issue.

“Samaritan is committed to taking care of overdraft fees or unexpected financial impact fees employees may have incurred due to this disruption,” Youngren said. 

Youngren said a few banks were still processing direct deposit transmissions that would rectify the issue. She added that the health district’s administration shared staff members’ frustrations and had worked with the health care district’s payroll partners to rectify the issue as quickly as they were able. 

“When it’s outside of our ability to fix or rectify it, we have to rely on our partners to finish the process,” she said.

R. Hans “Rob” Miller may be reached at editor@columbiabasinherald.com.