State board approves closure of obstetrics unit

Ascension Alexian Brothers will soon close its inpatient obstetrics unit after a state board voted Tuesday in favor of the move, despite outcry from nurses and community members.

The state Health Facilities and Services Review Board voted 6-3, after extensive discussion, to approve the hospital’s request to close the hospital.

Alexian Brothers has not yet announced when it will stop scheduling baby deliveries, but “will do so shortly,” Ascension spokeswoman Olga Solares said in an email.

Before the vote, the board received more than 40 letters and emails from people and groups opposed to the change, as well as six letters of support.

“Removing existing services will reduce healthcare accessibility for hundreds of pregnant patients,” Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison wrote.

A number of Alexian Brothers nurses said closing the unit could lead to safety concerns for mothers who have to drive 15 or 20 minutes longer to reach Ascension St. Alexius in Hoffman Estates.

“There are many cases in which a mother or baby would have literally died if our unit had not been operational,” wrote Wendy Pinones, who said she has been a veteran labor and delivery nurse for 38 years at Alexian Brothers. “Although (St. Alexius) is nearby, a 15-minute window for the transfer alone would have turned a good result into a very bad and sad result on several occasions.”

State Sen. Cristina Castro, D-Elgin, sent a letter of support for the decision, writing: “While I understand that the closure of inpatient obstetrics services generates angst for women in our communities, the reality is that hospitals like Ascension Alexian Brothers and Ascension St. Alexius are in the position to look to the future and plan accordingly to ensure they are able to meet the varied needs of patients at long term.

Ascension announced plans in July to move hospital obstetric care from Alexian Brothers to St. Alexius.

The change would limit “unnecessary duplication of services” at the two hospitals, Alexian Brothers wrote in its request for the state to discontinue inpatient obstetric services. Additionally, St. Alexius already has a neonatal intensive care unit, a 24-hour obstetric emergency department and neonatal specialty care not offered at Alexian Brothers, depending on demand.

Ascension also decided to move inpatient obstetric care to St. Alexius due to lower utilization of the service at Alexian Brothers, according to the request. Alexian Brothers has 28 obstetrics beds while St. Alexius has 38 beds, which should be enough to treat the 34 patients expected daily, on average, between the two hospitals, depending on demand.

Alexian Brothers will continue to offer outpatient obstetric care as well as emergency deliveries.

The change is part of a broader movement to establish “centers of excellence” focused on certain specialties, Dr. David Bordo, clinical director of Ascension Illinois, said in a statement when the plan was announced in July.

Other Chicago-area health systems, like Endeavor Health, have taken similar steps, concentrating certain specialties in individual hospitals within their system.

“In health care, and certainly here in the Chicago area, creating centers of excellence is quickly becoming a best practice,” Bordo wrote. “Community hospitals can no longer provide all services to all patients while maintaining the excellent outcomes that we and our patients expect.

Alexian Brothers will also continue to focus on growth in cardiology, stroke and spine care, Ascension said in a statement.

In recent years, many community hospitals have closed their labor and delivery units, particularly in the Chicago area, saying they are seeing less demand for their services as they compete with comprehensive women’s centers within larger hospitals. Community hospitals have also changed their inpatient care as demand for outpatient care increases, and they have refocused on more lucrative services.

The National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United was among the groups opposing the closure of the obstetrics unit. The union says Ascension has a history of closing labor and delivery units at hospitals across the country.

The union does not represent nurses at Ascension hospitals in Illinois, but does represent nurses at Ascension hospitals in other states.

Anastasia Villarreal, a nurse at Ascension Seton in Texas who spoke before the board Tuesday, said she saw the impact of her hospital seeing more obstetrics patients after another area hospital closed.

“Some (obstetrics patients) wait so long that they miss the window to get painkillers,” Villarreal said.

Earlier this year, Ascension significantly reduced its footprint in Illinois, selling eight of its Illinois hospitals to California-based Prime Healthcare for more than $370 million.