HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital’s top priority is the health and well-being of our patients and communities, and that includes ensuring that all the services we provide are accessible and of high quality. 

• On an ongoing basis, HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital carefully examines how we deliver care to the patients and communities we serve and how to best allocate resources to support patients across the region.
• As part of this process, HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital has evaluated how physician and clinical staffing shortages in our inpatient maternity unit, which are pervasive throughout the health care landscape, and steadily declining births, are impacting existing services.
• Based on this evaluation and the determination that workforce shortages and declining delivery volume significantly impact the sustainability of the unit, we submitted a notice to the Department of Public Health (DPH) and all appropriate parties to propose the closure of maternity inpatient services at HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital. 
  
  • Despite several years of good-faith efforts to recruit staff, offer hiring incentives, purchase state of the art equipment, and upgrade the facility, the Hospital unit’s staffing in critical positions continued to drop. 
  • This shortage of obstetricians, nurses, and other clinical professionals is projected to decline even further – which would have resulted in insufficient staffing of the maternity unit and the inability to deliver appropriate care at all times, posing unnecessary risk to birthing patients and newborns.

• After fully adhering to DPH’s regulatory review process for the closure of essential services, we closed HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital’s maternity inpatient unit on September 23, 2023. This does not affect the community’s access to prenatal and postpartum care, which will continue in this region.

• While closing this unit was absolutely necessary from a clinical standpoint, we understand that, emotionally, this decision was painful, especially for patients and employees at HA-C, as well as the broader community. As we look to the future, we remain committed to providing exceptional, culturally competent, and compassionate care, while strengthening and expanding resources for all those in need.

We understand how difficult this closure was for our impacted caregivers and have made every effort to work with them to find other positions within the UMass Memorial Health system wherever possible. 

Patients continue to have the option to receive their prenatal and postpartum care from the same local OB/GYN practices as they do now.

• Patients impacted by this closure can deliver within the UMass Memorial Health system at UMass Memorial Medical Center on our Memorial Campus at 119 Belmont Street in Worcester, or can choose to receive care at one of the many other high-quality hospitals providing obstetrics in the region. Many patients in our community already choose to deliver at the Medical Center, including those with high-risk pregnancies. 
• We will continue to work closely with our community obstetric and pediatric providers to maintain access to prenatal and postnatal care. We will continue to be in regular communication with these providers throughout the transition to make it as seamless as possible for patients. 
• We are also currently in the process of evaluating community need and conducting resource gap analyses to inform our community investment strategy and to ensure that health equity is fundamentally prioritized. This evaluation will shape our commitment to invest nearly $600,000 in women’s health through transportation resources as well as improving access and enhancing resources supporting pre- and post-natal care for mothers, birthing people, and infants. 

Yes. The emergency departments at both the Clinton and Leominster Campuses of HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital will continue to care for emergency cases when they arise and will continue to ensure staff are prepared to provide emergency obstetrics services. 

HealthAlliance-Clinton is a strong, stable and successful organization that is continually assessing community need and investing in services that support the health needs of our patients. While we currently have no further plans to reduce programs, we must always evaluate our programs and services to best direct our resources to support the communities we serve throughout the region. Over the past few years, HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital, Leominster campus, has invested in state-of-the-art health services to keep care in the community and meet current patient needs. 

• These investments include the establishment of a new Emergency Department, a new Diabetes Center at the Fitchburg Family Practice, and new Multidisciplinary Clinic space, as well as a new Cancer Center and Wellness Center. 
• This year, we launched an Extended Care Unit that cares for medically complex ventilated patients. 
• We will also be offering a Sports Medicine program in the fall that brings UMass Memorial Health specialists to Leominster.