Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sitka Hospital Moves Up Date for OB Shift

By SHANNON HAUGLAND

Sentinel Staff Writer

Sitka Community Hospital said today it is ending its labor and delivery services Friday, about three months before originally planned, due to “staffing issues.”

The plan approved by the hospital board in December called for moving labor and delivery services to SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital starting April 1.

Steve Hartford, Sitka Community Hospital director of operations, stands in the hospital's labor and delivery room today. (Sentinel Photo)

The early resignation of a hospital staff member who gave two weeks’ notice prompted the community hospital to reach out to SEARHC to ask whether the transition could be made sooner, SCH said.

“We can’t replace her, and at that point it made sense to go ahead and stop,” SCH CEO Rob Allen said. “It was down to the wire, and we had to make a decision.” 

The new date will affect five SCH patients with babies due between now and March 31, he said. 

Under the plan announced last year to move all labor and delivery services to SEARHC, the Sitka hospital will continue to provide pre- and post-natal services to their patients, and SCH medical providers will apply for privileges to deliver babies at Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital.

“The only change that SCH patients will experience is delivery at SEARHC Mt. Edgecumbe hospital,” Allen said in a letter to affected patients. “SCH providers will be on rotation at SEARHC to help accommodate continuity of care.”

He said after receiving the two weeks’ notice from the staff member, SCH tried for a week to find a replacement without success, and decided the best plan would be to move up the date. Medical staff and administrators at SEARHC said transition so far is going smoothly.

“It’s been a very positive collaborative effort between the institutions,” said Dan Neumeister, executive vice president of SEARHC, speaking from Juneau. “We’ve been meeting since November ... we’re wanting to make sure the transition goes well between SEARHC and Sitka Community Hospital.”

SCH has been deliberating how to provide maternity services for about a year, Allen said in his letter to patients.

“As a community hospital, we would like to be able to meet all the needs of Sitka residents, including expecting mothers,” he said. “After hearing from medical providers, it was decided by the SCH board (December, 2017) that we simply do not have enough births at our hospital to maintain a safe labor and delivery program. To ensure competency of providers, the industry standard dictates that a team of doctors should deliver at least 100 babies a year. For the last several years, there have been 30 to 40 births a year at SCH. This is why I made the recommendation last year to end labor and delivery at the hospital, while maintaining our prenatal and pediatric services.”

Neumeister said SEARHC provides high-quality labor and delivery services.

“We’re ready to continue to provide excellent care,” he said. “Any patient who needs delivery services, we’re ready ... SCH has done an excellent job communicating to moms and letting them know it’s moving faster than they thought.”

Ending labor and delivery at SCH was a difficult decision to make, Allen said.

“My daughter was born at SCH. It was one of the best days of my life, and I wish that we could continue to provide the opportunity for mothers in Sitka to give birth at our community hospital,” he wrote to patients. “I cannot, however, in good conscience continue to provide services when medical providers advise me that it is not safe to do so. Our decision to discontinue labor and delivery will result in more deliveries at Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital. While we may not have more than 100 births a year in this community, maintaining a single local team of providers who deliver as many babies as possible is a better option than dividing the deliveries between two independent teams.”