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UPDATE, 5 p.m.:

Mad River Community Hospital issued the following press release:

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:

• Inpatient and outpatient psychiatric services, including breaking ground on a crisis stabilization unit in partnership with the County of Humboldt and Cal Poly Humboldt
• Re-opening of home health services
• Other specialty services in partnership with regional health systems.
  

“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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Original post:

Mad River Community Hospital announced at a staff meeting today that its Trillium Birth Center will be closing its doors after the first week of October, according to several employees.

The closure of Mad River’s labor and delivery unit will leave St. Joseph Hospital as the only birthing center left in Humboldt County. Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna closed is obstetrics program in 2021, citing declining birth volumes and operational challenges, including difficulty hiring and retaining women’s services physicians and support staff. 

“Very bad news for our community,” said one nurse, who asked to remain anonymous, via email. “St Joes will not be able to absorb all the births. Well they will but it is not good.”

The pending closure of Trillium Birth Center fits into a nationwide trend that’s been described as a crisis in rural maternity care, as more than half of rural U.S. hospitals now lack labor and delivery services.

“Experts and other stakeholders said it is difficult for hospitals in rural areas to recruit and retain maternal health providers,” the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported in 2022, adding that “a higher proportion of rural patients rely on Medicaid, which doesn’t fully cover obstetric services.”

Two sources report that Mad River Community Hospital’s birth center will close on or after October 6. The Outpost has reached out to hospital administration to request more information. We will update this post once we know more.