UH Elyria to end birthing services over next several months

ELYRIA — University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center will end labor and delivery services over the next few months. Women's and children's services like OB/GYN physician and midwife care, the Hampson Mole Breast Health Suite, GYN surgical services and pediatric ED services will continue at UH Elyria. Delivering babies is the only thing that will end. Staff working in labor and delivery at Elyria will have the chance to either transfer to UH St. John Medical Center or to other facilities in the hospital system. There are 40 employees for labor and delivery at Elyria. The process of consolidating services will occur over a period of months. Those services will shift to the UH St. John campus in Westlake. In a news release, UH said now is the time to apply a systemwide approach to its services. As a result, heart surgery locations also will be consolidated. UH will increase the number of heart surgeries performed at the Elyria campus as a result of a decision to close the UH St. John cardiac surgery program. St. John will still offer heart and vascular services like diagnostic and therapeutic cardiac and peripheral catheterization procedures, including elective and emergency ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) percutaneous coronary interventions. Diagnostic electrophysiology procedures, device implantation and right-sided ablations also will continue to be performed at St. John. Staff at St. John are not expected to be impacted by the change. UH Elyria President Kristi Sink said the cardiac surgeon already splits time between Elyria and St. John, so the consolidation will allow him to be more available. Sink said the decision to consolidate the services came recently, but that hospital officials knew they wouldn't be able to offer all services in every UH hospital, particularly as specialized care becomes more specialized. After a recent service analysis, Sink said the hospital chain decided to consolidate so it could provide better quality across the hospitals. She said the hospital gave a lot of thought to the difficulty women in the Elyria community may have to drive to Westlake for the birth of their child. Sink said that she is encouraging patients to talk to their OB/GYN and that UH Elyria can offer some individual travel assistance based on the need of the patient. "We know that there will be concerns in the Elyria community about these changes," said Daniel Simon, chief clinical and scientific officer for UH, in a news release. "But we're confident that these moves will benefit all of our west market patients. Experience nationally shows that outcomes and patient experience improve when the number of similar procedures performed at a facility increases. Higher volume care can also be provided at a lower cost, helping to keep health care more affordable for patients." The next closest hospital that offers birthing and delivery is Mercy Health Lorain. The rest are outside Lorain County, such as Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital. Elyria Mayor Frank Whitfield said he is working with UH Elyria to keep the services in the city or find other health care partners who can provide birthing services in Elyria. Whitfield said that while he is happy to see an investment in heart health, the loss of delivery services will cause "a great challenge for families throughout Elyria and Lorain County." Whitfield expressed concern over what the loss of the birth center will do for racial inequities in infant mortality rates in Lorain County. The county has done a lot of work to reduce the infant mortality rate for African-Americans. Over the years, the rate has drastically decreased. "The loss of our Family Birth Center, in my opinion, will drastically impact our (community's) ability to combat infant mortality," he said. "And that earned progress isn't something we're willing to revert on. Not now. Not ever." Contact Laina Yost at (440) 329-7121 or lyost@chroniclet.com.