One might reflect on the closure of Jeanes Hospital by paraphrasing the opening sentence of Jonathan Franzen’s award winning novel The Corrections, “The alarm bell has been ringing for years.” The abandonment of OB care is not a new problem; it began in 1997, for the same reasons we see today.       

Josh Goldstein’s Philadelphia Inquirer article on February 16th announcing Jeanes’ closure describes births as “non-core” services.  Jeanes Hospital provided obstetric services for and attended approximately 1,600 births per year.  While it may be a secondary priority in light of fiscal pressures or relative to more profitable medical treatments and procedures, the steady rate of 50,000 births per year in the Commonwealth remains constant, inevitable and a core part of a family’s life cycle. 

In the fall, Maternity Care Coalition released our Childbirth at a Crossroads research report making clear that we have long since passed the threshold of providing timely, affordable and quality maternity care.  This is the 14th hospital closing since 1997.  An alarm bell is no longer sufficient to bring the public’s attention to the health care crisis we are witnessing for childbearing families.  Amidst these troubling realities, we at Maternity Care Coalition have several urgent and unanswered questions.  First and foremost, what are the transition plans for informing families and redirecting them to new services? 

While the hospital understandably seeks to reconcile expenses with revenues, what will families in the Northeast do when that most transformative of experiences, birth, is imminent?  Do the remaining hospitals within the Temple Healthcare system have the capacity to absorb the 1,600 births previously covered by Jeanes?  Taking into consideration last year’s increased Medicaid dollars directed to Temple, what were Jeanes financial shortfalls? 

How will this closure impact the remaining hospitals that are also suffering under financial duress?  Hospital administrators have already contacted MCC to tell us that “there is no more room at the inn”, asserting that they simply do not have the capacity to absorb Jeanes’ 1600 births per year.  The ultimate question is: If obstetric care is unprofitable for all local hospitals, do we as a community support this as a reason for all OB units to close?  Or will we wait to panic until the last doors are shut to birthing mothers? 

JoAnne Fischer

Executive Director
Maternity Care Coalition
Philadelphia

Learn about the childbirth crisis through our Maternity Care in Southeastern PA pages, or visit our Maternity Services Advocacy pages to find out how communities are advocating and how you can take action!

MCC's full Childbirth at a Crossroads report can be viewed here.