海角换妻鈥檚 Office of Health Strategy (OHS) issued its proposed decision Monday to deny Nuvance Health鈥檚 request to close down Sharon Hospital鈥檚 labor and delivery ward. It is just one of several rural hospitals in 海角换妻 that has recently proposed closing their labor and delivery wards.
The OHS decision said that closure would result in 鈥溾�榣ess diversity of health care providers and less patient choice in the geographic region.鈥� The nearest maternity ward to Sharon Hospital is 25 miles away, or a roughly 40-minute drive.
Andrea Rynn, assistant vice president of public relations at Nuvance Health, wrote in a statement that Nuvance was 鈥渄eeply disappointed鈥� in the OHS decision.
鈥淭his hospital faces serious financial hardships and a very under-utilized maternity unit with declining births and considerable operational costs,鈥� Rynn said.
The 海角换妻 Hospital Association issued a statement in opposition to the state鈥檚 decision to keep the ward open, saying rising healthcare costs and underfunded Medicaid have made it impossible for some hospitals to afford to keep their maternity wards open.
鈥淪taffing shortages, decreases in births, and skyrocketing temporary worker costs are serious challenges,鈥� the statement said. 鈥淚gnoring them doesn't make the challenges go away.鈥�
Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, celebrated OHS鈥檚 decision at a press conference Wednesday.
鈥淭he hospital was trying to close labor and delivery for $3 million of revenue,鈥� said State Comptroller Sean Scanlon. 鈥淎nd I think what the decision clearly rendered was that we did not think as a state that it was a good trade, for $3 million for profit, to jeopardize the health and safety of the women and children of this area.鈥�
鈥淧rofits are not a problem for Nuvance,鈥� said Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Despite healthcare staffing shortages across the state, Nuvance said it would train its emergency room employees to prepare them to handle emergency births.
Lydia Kruge Moore, who runs a non-profit dedicated to stopping the ward鈥檚 closure, Save Sharon Hospital, did not have an emergency delivery, but her labor moved quickly enough that she would not have been able to get to the next-closest hospital, which is a forty-minute drive away.
鈥淢y contractions were 30 minutes apart, so my doctor said, 鈥楯ust come in, we'll evaluate you,鈥欌�� Moore said. 鈥淢y water broke in the car on the way there. And then I delivered my daughter 40 minutes after I arrived at the hospital. [If I wasn鈥檛 going to Sharon Hospital] my husband would have had to deliver me on the side of the road.鈥�
Kruge Moore also questioned whether any amount of extra training could equal the years of residency that labor and delivery practitioners go through.
Dr. Edward Kavle, a pediatrician who cares for babies in Sharon鈥檚 pediatric intensive care unit, told 海角换妻 last month that research shows that any commute over 25 minutes to get to a hospital is 鈥渋ncredibly dangerous for babies.鈥�
Nuvance Health has until Sept. 18 to appeal OHS鈥檚 decision.
