Information about Inpatient Maternity Unit Closure
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View our testimony delivered at DPH hearing.
Why did HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital close its Maternity Inpatient Unit?
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.
When did the unit close and how many employees are impacted?
HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital’s maternity inpatient unit closed on September 23, 2023. We are tremendously grateful to our compassionate caregivers who have helped thousands of parents and families navigate the birthing journey and welcome new loved ones into their lives for so many decades. Like other health care providers across the industry, we are facing severe labor shortages, which exacerbated the challenges of staffing the unit. Caregivers impacted by the closure of the unit were offered other positions at the Hospital or within the UMass Memorial Health system.
What opportunities have been opened for impacted staff within the UMMH system? What partnerships has the system leveraged to place impacted staff elsewhere?
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.
How many patients are impacted by this closure?
- Ensuring equitable access to care is a pillar of HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital’s mission and remains a priority in the aftermath of this closure.
- Less than 500 deliveries occur at HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital annually, but that number has been steadily declining each year. This amounts to an average of less than two deliveries each day, and sometimes one or none.
- We will continue to work closely with our community obstetric and pediatric providers to maintain access to prenatal and postnatal care. In addition, we will be investing $600,000 in other community organizations to support the needs of our most vulnerable pregnant and birthing people in our local communities.
- All high-risk patients of local practices are already referred to a OB/GYN at the Medical Center due to its ability to provide more complex care and additional resources.
Where will patients go? What other services are available locally?
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.
How are patients being transported to other local services?
- Ensuring equitable access to care is a pillar of HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital’s mission and remains a priority in the aftermath of this closure.
- We are offering free 24/7/365, curb-to-curb transportation to the Memorial Campus of UMass Memorial Medical Center for birthing people with transportation barriers who are patients of the participating providers in North Central Massachusetts.
- This service is offered through GoGo, a service that works with companies like Uber and Lyft to provide reliable transportation throughout the day and night. This service is for urgent, non-emergency transportation. Interpreter services are also available.
- Patients should always call 911 if they need emergency medical services.
Will HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital be able to handle emergency deliveries?
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.
Can the Medical Center handle the additional births?
Yes. UMass Memorial Medical Center has sufficient staff and physical capacity to accept all the deliveries that currently occur at HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital.In anticipation of the increase in patient volume, we took several measures to improve available resources for the inpatient maternity unit on the Memorial Campus of the Medical Center.
- We have increased the number of labor and delivery staff with a fully staffed pool of registered nurses, as well as assigned additional clinician and advanced practice providers to improve efficiency in triage and postpartum care.
- There will soon be a dedicated Maternal Fetal Medicine subspecialist in the labor and delivery area during the day to support our antenatal testing service, and to round on and provide continuity for high-risk pregnant and postpartum patients.
Will there be other program cuts or closures at HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital?
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.
How is HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital planning to invest in the community as a result of this proposed closure?
Our commitment to our patients and the communities we serve extends beyond the walls of our facilities. Through Determination of Need funding, we have distributed 25 grants to community organizations. To date, more than $1.4 million of $2.35 million allocated for community investment has been distributed to address existing community health priorities.
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 improving access and enhancing resources supporting pre- and post-natal care for mothers, birthing people, and infants.
- We are tailoring our needs assessment to focus on various at-risk populations, such as low-income individuals; BIPOC individuals; disabled individuals; individuals with substance use disorders; LGBTQIA+ individuals; and others.
- We have engaged Health Resources in Action (HRIA) to facilitate and support this evaluation and data collection effort as a trusted third party.
- Our efforts will seek to support the service area of HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital, Leominster campus, which includes Ashburnham, Ashby, Bolton, Clinton, Fitchburg, Gardner, Harvard, Lancaster, Leominster, Lunenburg, Princeton, Sterling, Townsend, and Westminster.