Those preferences and challenges include a declining number of births taking place in the labor and delivery unit, saying the number of babies born at UVMC in 2023 was half of what that number was a decade ago.
“Labor and delivery is a service commonly associated with a full-service community hospital, so this decision was not made lightly,” Premier Health said.
The following factors were taken into consideration, Premier Health said, when deciding to close the unit:
- A declining birth rate locally and outmigration of births
- The number of births at UVMC in 2023 was about half of what it was less than a decade ago. This averages out to fewer than one delivery each day at the hospital.
- In 2022, 70% of patients living in Miami County left the county for obstetrics delivery services. In the first quarter of 2023, across Miami, Darke, and Shelby counties, Miami Valley Hospital accounted for 23.4% of births, while UVMC accounted for 16.4% of births.
- Challenges around physician recruitment are industry-wide, especially at smaller community-based hospitals, resulting in temporary provider (locums) expenses that are not sustainable.
Those factors all made the need to close the unit “obvious,” Premier Health said.
Figures for 2022 included 541 admissions for newborn care at UVMC with 1,151 total patients days, according to the hospital’s 2022 annual report for its hospital registration through the Ohio Department of Health. For obstetrics care, there were 547 admissions and 1,265 total patient days.
For all inpatient hospital statistics, there were 6,292 admissions to UVMC in 2022 and 24,366 total patient days.
The figures for 2023 were not available yet through the Ohio Department of Health. Premier Health said there were approximately 325 births at UVMC in 2023.
Approximately 49 employees are being impacted by this decision. Premier Health plans to absorb the employees in UVMC’s labor and delivery department into other roles elsewhere in their network, saying the health system will provide retraining to those who choose to move into other specialties.
“Our gratitude goes out to the labor and delivery and special care nursery staff, many of whom have devoted decades of their career to playing a role in the delivering of babies in Miami County,” said Kevin Harlan, president of Upper Valley Medical Center and Atrium Medical Center. “This is a special role, and they handle it with reverence and as the privilege that it is.”
| Type of care | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newborn care: Number of admissions | 624 | 100 | 560 | 541 | 541 |
| Newborn care: Number patient days of care | 1,490 | 289 | 1,132 | 1,163 | 1,151 |
| Obstetrics care: Number of admissions | 650 | 595 | 573 | 568 | 547 |
| Obstetrics care: Number of patient days of care | 1,437 | 1,352 | 1,215 | 1,225 | 1,265 |
| Total hospital admissions | 7,017 | 6,504 | 5,751 | 6,035 | 6,292 |
| Total hospital patient days of care | 24,577 | 24,233 | 21,805 | 24,576 | 24,366 |
UVMC is planning to transition the 21 maternity beds at the hospital to medical/surgical beds. UVMC and Premier Health will continue to offer women’s services to area patients through the following ways:
- The Premier Women’s Center office at 101 Looney Road in Piqua will continue to provide local obstetrics patients with both prenatal and post-natal care.
- Gynecological surgery will continue to be performed at the hospital.
- The hospital will open its new Women’s Imaging Center in March 2024.
Current patients can transition to the Berry Women’s Center at Miami Valley Hospital’s main campus, the health system said. Miami Valley Hospital has a high-risk maternity unit and Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in the same facility.
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