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Uniontown Hospital to close birthing center, end inpatient pediatric department

By Mike Tony mtony@heraldstandard.Com 5 min read
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Frances Borsodi Zajac|Herald-Standard

Uniontown Hospital announced Monday that is is going to close its Family Beginnings Birthing Center on June 30. The hospital will act as a “gateway” to continued care for its obstetrical patients by referring them to WVU Health System-related facilities, Jefferson Hospital and Magee-Womens Hospital, said Josh Krysak, director of community relations for Uniontown Hospital.

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Frances Borsodi Zajac|Herald-Standard

Uniontown Hospital will close its birthing center in two months and is also discontinuing its inpatient pediatric department, the hospital announced Monday.

Uniontown Hospital announced Monday that it will close its birthing center on June 30, the latest impact to be felt from the unwinding of its relationship with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Replacing the Family Beginnings Birthing Center, which has recently delivered around 800 babies a year, will be a regional care model in which Uniontown Hospital refers area patients needing obstetrical care to regional facilities.

So in two months, area women and their families seeking obstetric care will have to travel to West Virginia University Health System-related facilities, Jefferson Hospital and Magee-Womens Hospital, which Uniontown Hospital announced its administrators will work with to provide such care.

“These changes are about what is best for our patients and for the community we serve,” Uniontown Hospital CEO Steve Handy said. “Our decisions are never just about the bottom line or the short-term, but what options are available to us to provide the best care and sustain that level of care long-term.”

The Family Beginnings Birthing Center closing will not result in layoffs, Handy said, adding that all impacted Uniontown Hospital employees will have an opportunity to move to another role within the organization if they choose.

Handy said that Uniontown Hospital employees that wish to continue their career in their chosen specialty “will receive our support and assistance in seeking other opportunities to continue their passion.”

Uniontown Hospital is also discontinuing its inpatient pediatric department, which Handy said will allow the hospital to move some inpatient departments on the first and second floors of the hospital and allow for an expanded area for med-surg patient care on the second floor.

Handy said that an “overwhelming majority” of pediatric patients treated at the hospital are either released following treatment or stabilized in the emergency department and moved to Children’s Hospital for inpatient care.

Family Beginnings Birthing Center staff currently provides care primarily to antepartum, intrapartum, postpartum and neonatal patients on a 24-hour basis, with an average length of stay of 24 to 48 hours for a vaginal birth and 48 to 72 hours for a cesarean birth. The center includes 11 private rooms and a postpartum area as well as five labor/delivery/recovery rooms.

The news of the hospital closing its birthing center and discontinuing its inpatient pediatric department comes four weeks after Handy addressed a memo to hospital employees saying that the hospital was trying to figure out how to stabilize its physician-related services “without destabilizing the (h)ospital” and would develop a plan with its physicians in the weeks ahead as it navigates the end of its eight-year partnership with UPMC.

“Going through a divorce is emotionally draining and financially devastating,” Handy said in the memo.

UPMC told Uniontown Hospital at the beginning of the year that it wanted to end its physician relationships with the hospital by midsummer and declined a request that the hospital made last month to delay a planned withdrawal from the Fayette Physician Network by June 30 since continued support for the primary care network was “not in their budget,” according to Handy’s memo.

Handy announced in January that Uniontown Hospital was exploring a relationship with West Virginia University Health System that both sides said would strengthen combined health care services.

“We continue to have positive discussions with Uniontown Hospital about ways in which we can clinically align,” said Angela S. Jones-Knopf, WVU Medicine media relations manager, marketing and communications on Monday. “With the recent announcement of the closing of obstetrical services at Uniontown Hospital, WVU Medicine stands ready to fill in the gaps and welcome these women at one of the most special and vulnerable times in their lives. With less than half an hour drive to Morgantown and offices in Cheat Lake, we would likely seem the logical choice for many of these women and their families.”

WVU Cheat Lake Physicians is an outpatient clinic in Cheat Lake where WVU Health System sees obstretics and gynecology patients. Births, surgeries, and other medical procedures would take place at J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, WVU Medicine’s flagship hospital, in Morgantown.

“Allegheny Health Network and Jefferson Hospital are committed to providing convenient access to high-quality health care services in the many communities that we serve,” said Dan Laurent, vice president of corporate communications at Allegheny Health Network. “Jefferson Hospital’s obstetrical program has grown significantly since its inception three years ago, as more women and families in southern Allegheny County and the Mon Valley region recognize the value of having high-quality, state-of-the-art obstetrical care close to home. With the closure of Uniontown Hospital’s obstetrics program, we are currently working on opportunities to help further support the community’s obstetrical health needs.”

Uniontown Hospital is soon to join a long line of hospitals across Pennsylvania that have closed their obstetric units, including Mon Valley Hospital in Carroll Township and Excela Frick Hospital in Mount Pleasant, according to the Hospital Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, which reported in 2017 that 47 hospital obstetric units had closed statewide since 2000.

“We are joining a host of other community hospitals facing these difficult realities,” Handy said.

But while the number of obstetric units has dwindled, the challenges facing obstetrics have not.

A Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment report indicated a 250% increase from 2000 to 2015 in neonatal hospital admissions related to substance abuse.

The state’s birth rate has decreased moderately during recent years, but the percentage of low birth weight babies — less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces — who need more specialized care, has not decreased, according to the Hospital Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, which noted in its 2017 report that nearly half of all the 135,000-plus births in Pennsylvania hospitals are funded by Medical Assistance, also known as Medicaid.

“Our hospital truly does make a difference in the lives of our patients and we are committed to finding the best ways to make that healthy difference,” Handy said. “We may face challenges, but our path is clear – to continue to provide for the health care needs of our community.”

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