Ob-dept Closed

imenid37 · Jan 10, 2005

Wow! That is horrible. I work in a small hospital and I can see this happening to us one day if the current healthcare trends don't change. The malpractice situation is out of control and the hospital keeps pulling all of us to med-surg and peds. Staff are sick of the pulling and ready to leave. The doctors are stretched thin and stressed to the max by the malpractice issues. I fear that a lot of small hospitals may lose OB and I agree it is not what's best for the patients. I wish you the very best in finding another job.

Jolie, BSN · Jan 10, 2005

Can you post your general location? My guess is that you are in IL or PA or one of the other states where malpractice insurance is hard to come by. As a NICU RN with a history of high risk pregnancies, this trend scares the c**p out of me. I had 2 precipitous deliveries, one complicated by a prolapsed cord. Half an hour of travel time would have cost me my daughter.

I live in an area where there have been no neurosurgeons willing to do brain procedures for trauma patients because of the inability to pay for malpractice insurance. Patients have waited hours while ER staff desperately searched for referral hospitals willing to accept them, and one gentleman died enroute to a hospital more than 2 hours away. It is disgraceful that in this day and age of medical advances patients suffer and die over liability issues.

For the sake of your patients and fellow staff, I hope something can be worked out to re-open the unit.

CHATSDALE · Jan 11, 2005

this can happen but it is always scary when it does.jobwise..i hope for the patients in your area that they find an alternative clinic///nobody wins in a situation like this...i have heard that some states are putting a cap on settlements...lawyers not happy about this

HappyNurse2005, RN · Jan 14, 2005

I live in Virginia and some rural areas have shut down their L&D units due to lack of deliveries, forcing patients to drive farther. One recent case involved a woman who lived in the affected area. She instead had to drive 1 hour to where I live to see an OB. She was also pregnant with triplets. She was about 1 week away from her scheduled C-section when she went into labor. they apparently knew that she would nto make it 1 hour to the hospital where she was now supposed to deliver, and went to the closest hospital-the one with the closed L&D unit. the hospital had to perform the C-section, then ship her and the babies to the other hospital.

here is a link to the story about it on a news website

http://www.wsls.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSLS%2FMGArticle%2FSLS_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031780039106&path=!news!localnews

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 14, 2005

I can sure relate: a unit I worked in shut down 18 mo ago. The nurses were sad. The community upset. But the bottom line is money. And I will tell you this: most OB units hemorrhage money, rather than bring in revenue. The liability is a HUGE issue as well. So is 24/7 anesthesia coverage (or rather, lack of it). Most hospitals, if they had their druthers, would close them, if they could get away with it! It will come down to only the biggest hospitals having them one way or another. Sad.

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Jan 14, 2005

We had a hospital close to here stop deliveries in its OB January 1st. It is a real shame, the area it serviced was a large rural area of mainly low income and the closest OB now is either 30 mi to the north, 45 miles to the south or 60 miles to the east.

It's unfortunate, malpractice insurance doesnt make it worthwhile for OB's to practice in these areas and they are some of the ones who need them the most. The hospital did have GP's that delivered, but financially they couldnt let the wing remain open with no OB on staff.

CA CoCoRN, RN · Jan 15, 2005

I'm in LA...and we are feeling the brunt of many of the hospitals in the area either shutting down, limiting their services or not doing high risk. So now we get it all....and it's getting worse.

MLK-Drew Medical Center shuttles virtually all their OB cases to us (either because the pt's themselves don't want to go there or because...well, that's it). Even our sister hospital closed...so now we get those patients as well. The other 4 hospitals in our area give us all their high risk transfers. The only reason many pts go to the other hospitals is to get their sterilizations done (we're a Catholic facility and we don't offer tubals/sterilizations).

{Well, now, for those who know part of the LA area....it's sort of obvious where I work :rotfl: :imbar }

Rose B · Jan 19, 2005

I work in a small rural hospital. The OB closed for about 1 1/2 years but reopened and we are now a viable unit. The feeling of our hospital board is that you bring in the OB's, you'll bring in the family. We are even renovating to be able to offer our families all the comforts of the "BIG" hospitals. We don't have a NICU so we don't keep real high risk, and I like it that way.