Oh Baby! MCMH to stop delivery services
After much deliberation, officials with the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees voted to change the way it provides obstetrics (OB) services.
Starting next month, the delivery of babies will no longer take place at MCMH. Instead, expectant mothers will deliver at Cass County Health Systems in Atlantic. MCMH will continue to provide pre and postnatal services.
“MCMH and CCHS have had a regional partnership for more than 30 years,” said MCMH Marketing Director Kiley Bowen. “MCMH, CCHS and Myrtue Medical Center in Harlan make up an association called Health Partners of Southwest Iowa. This association enables the hospitals to provide nuclear medicine services, conduct medical professional credentials, provide regional training programs of the American Heart Association, and allowed for the shared purchase of medical simulation mannequins.”
Bowen added, the hospital’s long-standing relationship with CCHS gives them the opportunity to combine OB volumes with a trusted partner, thereby keeping prenatal, postnatal and all other women’s health services in Red Oak.
The reason behind moving OB services, she explained, is that Montgomery County is a rural county with an aging population. This has resulted in a continuing drop in OB volumes.
“Iowa is in an obstetric crisis,” said MCMH CEO David Abercrombie. “Unfortunately, a rural state means a low population density, and that means too few births. MCMH is the seventh hospital since this spring to make the difficult decision to stop delivering babies. We seven hospitals aren’t alone, either. In the past 20 years, about 41 Iowa hospitals have made this same decision. All across Iowa, rural community hospitals are rethinking the design of their obstetrical services. It’s all about the number of babies a rural hospital can expect to deliver. If there are too few deliveries, the service will become unsustainable and will threaten the entire women’s health program.”
Despite continued efforts to grow the program, MCMH has not experienced the increased volumes they had hoped for, he continued. Without making changes to the current structure, the women’s health service line would not be sustainable long-term.
“We believe partnering with another hospital is the best way to ensure that women’s health services remain strong in our area for many years to come,” said Abercrombie.
The next several months will be a time of transition. The women’s health services team will work with each patient to make this transition as easy as possible.”
Three physicians currently deliver babies at MCMH: Dr. Brian Couse, Dr. Christopher Johnson, and Dr. Marcela Pineda.
Dr. Johnson will be leaving MCMH sometime in early October.
Dr. Couse is a family practice physician who is employed by the Methodist Health System and is on the MCMH medical staff.
Although he will no longer deliver babies at MCMH, he will continue to provide care to his family practice patients at the Methodist Physicians Clinic-Red Oak.
Dr. Pineda and Sharon Johnson, ARNP, and the women’s health team will continue to provide a full range of women’s health services at MCMH in Red Oak.
These include gynecology, gynecological surgery, prenatal and postnatal care, breastfeeding support, women’s diagnostic services, women’s primary care, and more.
Dr. Pineda will travel to CCHS for her patient’s delivery day. Should something prevent Dr. Pineda from being there, CCHS has a team of family practice/obstetricians to deliver the baby, Bowen said.
“At MCMH, we took the innovative step to work with Cass County Health System in Atlantic within a new model that keeps our non-OB women’s health services here, strong and local, and babies will be delivered at Cass County Health System by our MCMH-employed OB/GYN physician, Dr. Marcela Pineda,” said Abercrombie. “Although the exact date for this change isn’t yet determined, we anticipate the transition to begin during the first few days of October.”