Rally held in support of UH Elyria labor and delivery services

ELYRIA — A group of nurses and local parents gathered Thursday morning in the McKinley Elementary School parking lot to push back against the planned end of labor and delivery services at University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center. They recounted their positive experiences at the hospital and expressed concern with the UH plan to consolidate labor and delivery at St. John Medical Center in Westlake. "This birthing center saved my son's life," said Lauren Hancharick, of Lorain, recalling how a lactation consultant recognized a problem in her son when she came back later to a free support room for breastfeeding. "...I was readmitted back in with the same staff with the same care, and my son's life was saved because I didn't know there was a problem until somebody saw it." OB/GYN physician and midwife care, the Hampson Mole Breast Health Suite, GYN surgical services and pediatric emergency department services will still be offered at the hospital. The changes are a result of a consolidation push UH says will lead to better-quality specialized care. Heart surgery locations also will be consolidated, leading to an increased number of heart surgeries at UH Elyria Medical Center. The consolidations will take place over a period of months. Nearly 40 employees work in labor and delivery at Elyria, and the hospital will make efforts to transfer them to another facility in the UH system. Reached by phone later Thursday, UH Elyria Medical Center President Kristi Sink said the Elyria staff are "wonderful people" and she has committed to help them find their next role however she can. One concern raised by attendees at Thursday's rally was that the increased distance expectant mothers must travel to deliver their babies will be a hindrance for many local women, including some who have walked from their homes to the hospital to give birth. "We have a community of people that can't afford to go to Fairview, that can't afford to go to St. John's," said Dinene Knighten, a UH Elyria LDRP nurse. "The wealth disparity and the unemployment rates here versus Westlake are huge." But Sink said later the move will result in the best quality care and could create safer conditions for births. "There are national studies that show if a mom delivers in a hospital that has less than 1,000 deliveries a year, the risk for mortality for that mom doubles what it would be if it were delivering in a facility of over 1,000 (deliveries)," she said. "That's really where our decision comes from, but I certainly empathize with a preference to do it at the local hospital." Sink added that the hospital is open to providing transportation funds to help patients travel from home to St. John if they need it. The current thinking is that transportation would ideally be organized through an OB/GYN physician, Sink said. Sarah Wright, a LDRP nurse at UH Elyria Medical Center, said she wants to know how UH is going to provide continuity in relationships when mothers may get prenatal care in Elyria but cannot deliver their babies there. "Even if they are providing prenatal care out here, those doctors at St. John's aren't going to know those moms that did make it to the three appointments they could make it to and did the best they could with their care," Wright said. "They are going to treat them with judgment, and I feel like that is going to result in higher mortality rates for our population." Elyria Mayor Frank Whitfield and members of his staff stayed after the rally to talk individually with attendees and gather a list of questions to ask UH executives about the planned moves. They plan to share the results of more than 600 community survey responses with the hospital. Whitfield described the move as "something right in front of us that is going to damage and hurt our community" and said now is the time for leaders to speak up. He and OB/GYN physician Dr. Rima Bachuwa helped organize the rally. "We know this was a decision made out of Cleveland because people who work in Elyria would have never made this decision," he said, encouraging attendees who know members of the hospital's board to urge them to fight for the city. "My kids were born there. I've been in here twice in the past," Whitfield said. "I'm not anti-UH. I want the best for UH and that's why I'm here." Contact Dylan Reynolds at (440) 329-7123 or dreynolds@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @drey1357.