Another county will become a maternal health care desert in the state on Oct. 15. Banner Platte County Hospital announced this week that it will be pausing inpatient labor and delivery services this fall. That includes newborn patient care, postpartum care and outpatient prenatal care.
Last year, Evanston Regional Hospital ended labor and delivery services. This came after three other labor and delivery units closed across the state.
On Oct. 15, there will be nine counties in the state without labor and delivery capacity. Maternity health care deserts are defined as areas without a hospital or birth center offering obstetric care and without any obstetric physicians. The state legislature has identified the increase of these deserts as a top issue for the last two interim sessions.
“This is intended to just be a pause in the service,” said Sandy Dugger, CEO of Banner Platte County Hospital. “We are still strongly committed to recruiting full-time qualified obstetric providers to add to the team we have and to rebuild a really strong high-quality obstetrical program.”
However, Dugger said she is unsure on the timeframe for bringing the services back to Wheatland. She said the main reasons for this pause is the decline of births over the last several years and provider recruitment.
Dugger said in the best-case scenario, the hospital would have three full-time family practice providers who are trained in obstetrics. But they currently only have one.
All the current obstetric patients at Banner Platte County Hospital have been contacted by the hospital directory, which is helping them set up care with the provider of their choice.
“There’s really four different communities that those individuals would most likely select for them but we are definitely partnering with them through that,” said Dugger.
There are four hospitals with labor and delivery services surrounding Wheatland, including Laramie, Torrington, Cheyenne and Douglas. Expectant mothers will have to drive over 50 minutes for any OB appointment once the services close in October.
The interim Joint Labor, Health and Social Services committee met in June to discuss labor and delivery services shuttering across the state. During that meeting, the Wyoming Department of Health testified that the closures are a symptom of broader financial strain on the state’s hospitals. There has been a national trend of fewer births and a shortage of OBGYNs.
The committee has discussed many potential solutions, but so far hasn’t proposed any legislation. They meet one more time this interim on Oct. 16 and 17 in Cheyenne. Members asked the Legislative Service Office to look into mobile health units, solutions to maternity care deserts from other states and midwifery for the upcoming meeting.
