Cook County hospital likely to end birth services
"Everyone that I've talked to has just glowed about the service they got," said Danfelt, 28, who lives with her husband 10 miles outside of town. "It was very special. It was very homey. It was as natural as possible. They felt very safe and cared for."
But Danfelt, who is due
She has accepted as inevitable that the hospital's board will decide on Friday to end obstetrics services at the 57-year-old hospital, effective
It's an unwelcome reality that residents of many small communities are facing.
Obstetrics services will end this summer at
For
The hospital's level of obstetrics care falls short of current accepted standards in five areas, the report from Coverys found.
The report couldn't be pushed aside, Wraalstad told about 60 people who packed a hospital classroom during a hospital board meeting on Thursday morning.
"The insurability of our organization is in jeopardy without making the recommended improvements," she said.
Meeting them, Wraalstad said, would be like going through a series of hurdles -- until No. 5, which is more like a brick wall. According to the standards established by the
The hospital has no surgery suite, Wraalstad said.
"Even if we did, we estimate to have anesthesia and surgery capabilities -- not including the surgeon -- would be
Dr.
"C-section availability within 30 minutes is unimaginable," he said.
But those standards don't make sense in a community such as
"The tangled web of liability is reaching into the community where maybe the same rules shouldn't apply," Jorgenson said in an interview. "You can't apply the same logic to every situation."
Dr.
Dahlman has spent large parts of his career in
"Here in my own community, where I established my care and practice, we're going the other way," he said. "That seems very ironic."
The hospital has an excellent record of safely delivering babies, Dahlman said.
"If you look at evidence, there's no reason for an insurance company to say that you're unsafe," he said.
But Wraalstad said a childbirth emergency that the hospital isn't equipped to handle would be devastating for all concerned, even if that hasn't happened during her four years as administrator.
People have suggested changing insurers, she said. But that wouldn't address the core issue of not being able to meet currently accepted standards.
She also noted that only about 20 percent of
"When you have 10 deliveries, how do you maintain the experience?" she asked.
If the obstetrics unit is closed, the
A key to the transition will be to make sure there's continuity of care between
"The doctors and the hospital remain committed to do everything we can to make sure patients in
Many of the
But a segment of the county's women don't want pain medications and like the respect for natural birth they are given at their hospital, she said.
"It's just the kind of women we have," Wharton said. "That's what you see represented in those 10 birthdays a year."
Public meeting
A public informational meeting to discuss the future of obstetrics at
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