SOUTHBRIDGE, MA – The Board of Directors of Harrington HealthCare System voted unanimously on Friday to seek approval from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to close Harrington Hospital’s Family Birthing Center, according to President and CEO Edward H. Moore.
See: President Moore’s note to the Harrington community
At the same time of the closure, Harrington will enter into an agreement with UMass Memorial Medical Center to maintain local access to pre- and post-natal care and all gynecological care, with deliveries being performed at the Maternity Center at the Medical Center’s Memorial campus.
Under the agreement, three Harrington OB/GYNs will become employees of the UMass Memorial Medical Group, Inc. and will join delivery call rotation there. These providers will continue to manage their current patient panel as well as new obstetrics and gynecology patients at two co-branded satellite offices within the Harrington service area.
“Harrington and UMass Memorial already cooperate in the delivery of obstetrics and women’s health as high-risk pregnancies are often referred for delivery at the UMass Memorial Maternity Center, and a tertiary level urogynecologist employed by UMass Memorial is currently deployed part-time at Harrington,” says Moore. “This arrangement will ensure that patients will experience the best of both worlds, local access for all comprehensive gynecological care as well as 90% of pre- and post-natal care locally, and deliveries taking place in the Maternity Center at UMass Memorial.”
A total of 39 administrative and non-physician clinical staff that works within the Family Birthing Center or Harrington Physician Services practices will be impacted according to Vice President of Human Resources Christopher Canniff. “We will do everything we can to support our employees in preparing for this transition with outplacement services, retirement planning and assistance in applying for open positions at Harrington and other area hospitals,” Canniff said.
Moore says the closure is necessary due to staffing difficulties, low birth volume, and the financial burden of underwriting $3–$4 million in annual costs to staff a unit with limited utilization. “The writing has been on the wall for some time now. Despite having a low transfer rate, area residents have been hesitant to choose a birthing center like Harrington’s that does not have a neonatal intensive care unit,” he said. “In 2014, Harrington delivered only 237, or 15% of the 1,560 babies born in our service area.”
“Birth volume is decreasing every year in the United States. Harrington deliveries reached their peak in 2001 and have been steadily declining ever since, with a record low birth count in 2016 of just 217 deliveries. That’s a lower number of deliveries than any other community or teaching hospital in the Commonwealth except for Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket,” according to Moore. “We’ve also seen the effects of the Massachusetts opioid crisis, with an increase in redirection to UMass Memorial of high-risk opioid-affected deliveries.”
The Family Birthing Center at Harrington Hospital has been in continuous operation since the hospital was founded in 1932. The 6,500 square foot labor and delivery unit includes 11 private delivery suites, a 12-bassinet nursery and one operating room for C-sections.
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