The following is a press release from Mad River Community Hospital: Leadership at Mad River Community Hospital has made the difficult decision to suspend labor and delivery services in October 2024. In the interim, MRCH will continue to offer labor and delivery (L&D) services for both scheduled and unscheduled deliveries. The suspension of L&D services will not affect non-L&D gynecological services, such as hysterectomies, laparoscopies and tubal ligations, services that MRCH will continue to offer.
“This is one of the hardest decisions I have made in my tenure as CEO,” said Douglas Shaw. “Mad River has been the premier L&D provider for Humboldt County for many years. However, over the past four years, volumes have declined significantly to the point where we are performing, on average, less than 25 births per month.
We used to average 60-plus births per month, which was necessary to fund the service line. At our current volume, the L&D has been sustaining a seven-figure annual loss for the past several years. When the decline in volume is combined with inadequate and stagnated reimbursements rates under Medi-Cal, unfunded mandates for seismic compliance, and other significant challenges for rural healthcare, the continuation of L&D service will jeopardize the hospital’s continued viability in the community.
We are working with local hospitals and clinic providers to facilitate the absorption of our L&D volume.” Mad River Community Hospital will pivot to offer other critical services to the community. These services include: “We are excited to offer additional services to the community, as each of the above listed services will help to fill a void in our local healthcare system,” said Chief Nursing Officer Melissa Long.
“Mental health and Cardiology and Urology services are desperately needed in Humboldt County.” “We are working with our L&D staff to transfer them to other areas of the hospital,” said Long. “We have many talented staff members that can be utilized in other important departments within the hospital as we continue to grow.
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