Uniontown Hospital to stop delivering babies, putting rural mothers-to-be in a bind
Uniontown Hospital’s pending closure of Fayette County’s only birthing center at the end of June comes with officials citing similar death knells as other facilities already shuttered around Western Pennsylvania — rising costs, challenges of recruiting doctors to rural locales, declining birth rates and other changes in the health care industry.
The hospital is closing its Family Beginnings Birthing Center as it reevaluates services while transitioning from its partnership with UPMC to an affiliation with West Virginia University Health System in Morgantown, said Josh Krysak, Uniontown Hospital spokesman. For women due to give birth after July 1, hospital staff will work to find alternative birthplace facilities, Krysak said.
The hospital also intends to close its inpatient pediatric department, as most children treated there are released or stabilized and then moved to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
“This (closing obstetrics units) is definitely a trend, and it’s not just in Western Pennsylvania. It’s a national trend as well,” said Patricia J. Raffaele, vice president of professional services for the Healthcare Council of Western Pennsylvania, a trade organization representing hospitals and other health care providers.
Read more: https://triblive.com/local/regional/uniontown-hospital-to-stop-delivering-babies-further-shrink-options-for-rural-mothers/
= new reply since forum marked as read
“Thanks for the rising costs, Obama!”
