MEADOWBROOK — One of the few area hospitals that still delivers babies is expanding its obstetrical department.
Holy Redeemer Hospital and Medical Center has started work on a $10 million renovation and expansion project that will provide additional access to maternity and neonatal intensive-care services.
“We are delivering about 3,000 babies per year, which is an increase of more than 50 percent since 2005,” said Marian Thallner, vice president of women’s and children’s services at Holy Redeemer.
Thallner noted the growth has placed Holy Redeemer among the top five providers of maternity care in the region.
The eastern Montgomery County hospital’s deliveries surged after Jeanes Hospital, in nearby Northeast Philadelphia, closed its maternity ward in 2007.
Thallner said about eight of the 20 obstetricians delivering babies at Holy Redeemer have offices in Northeast Philadelphia. She noted the health system is recruiting to add a few more obstetricians in Northeast Philadelphia to ensure women receive access to prenatal care.
Overall, 16 hospitals in the region have left the baby-delivery business since 1997, blaming the combination of escalating malpractice insurance costs for obstetrical service and inadequate reimbursement from public and private insurers for deliveries.
Most recently, Northeastern Hospital in the Port Richmond section of the city, announced it was ending all inpatient services — including deliveries — as part of a plan by the Temple University Health System to transform the facility into an outpatient-care center.
The Philadelphia-based Maternity Care Coalition continued its efforts on behalf of pregnant women last month by lobbying state legislators in Harrisburg to ensure maternity benefits are part of all insurance products offered in Pennsylvania.
Earlier this year, Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood and Albert Einstein Medical Center in North Philadelphia completed multimillion-dollar expansion and renovation projects for their obstetrical departments.
Grand View Hospital in Sellersville is spending $9.5 million to nearly double the size of its labor and delivery and maternity services unit to 28,000 square feet. The Upper Bucks County hospital’s expansion project is expected to be completed early next year.
Paoli Hospital in Chester County will be expanding its obstetrics department as part of its ongoing $90 million patient tower project.
Holy Redeemer’s expansion and renovation development is expected to take two years. The project will add 7,550 square feet and renovate 33,600 square feet of space. The expansion will allow the hospital to increase its neonatal intensive-care unit beds to 19 from 10 and enhance its high-risk maternity unit, triage, nursery, post-partum unit, central nursing station, and waiting areas.
“A big part of the construction is the expansion of the NICU,” Thallner said. “Right now we have 19 babies in the NICU and our capacity is 10.” The additional babies are cared for in adjacent nursing space with the approval of the state Department of Health.
The additional space is designed to allow the medical center to accommodate up to 4,000 births.
“[Delivering babies] is part of our heritage,” Thallner said. “We want to continue to provide this service to meet a community need. One of the things that keeps an obstetrical unit viable is size. Small units have a hard time surviving because of all of the infrastructure you need.”
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