At their monthly meeting on Wednesday, February 8, the Chester River Health System (CRHS) Board voted to close the obstetrics unit at Chester River Hospital Center (CRHC) as of April 1, 2012. The decision follows the recent announcement that Anthony Moorman, M.D., will cease delivering babies at CRHC effective March 31, 2012 and start delivering at Anne Arundel Medical Center. Dr. Moorman & Associates, which includes Dr. Lisa Webb, is the only OB/GYN practice in Kent County.
“We were forced to evaluate our obstetrics department’s viability upon receiving Dr. Moorman’s announcement on February 1,” said Wayne Gardner, chairperson of Chester River Health System’s Board. “After much discussion, the board made this decision with a very heavy heart,” Gardner continued. “If we don’t have an obstetrics practice located in Kent County committed to delivering babies at CRHC, we’re not able to maintain an obstetrics unit.”
Gardner said that it quickly became apparent to the CRHS Board that closing the unit was the only option at this time. On average, he noted, it takes 12 to 18 months to recruit an obstetrician to a rural area like Kent County, and CRHC would need to recruit at least two obstetricians to make the service workable. Additionally, since Dr. Moorman & Associates intends to continue providing prenatal and postnatal care to the Kent County community from offices in Chestertown, establishing a second, competing obstetrics group would not be practical, since the county’s population cannot support four OB physicians. CRHC has the lowest number of births of any hospital in Maryland—183 babies were delivered in 2011. The next lowest hospital, in Garrett Country, had 50 percent more births than Chester River. In comparison, Memorial Hospital in Easton had more than 1,000 births during the same time period, while Anne Arundel Medical Center had nearly 5,000 births.
In accordance with the provisions of the Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC), CRHC has made arrangements for a public informational hearing to provide notice and information to the community about the closure decision. The hearing will occur on Monday, March 12, 2012, 7:00 p.m. at Kent County High School.
Primary care physicians and the Kent County Health Department can assist patients in finding a qualified physician or obstetrician to provide prenatal care and a location to give birth. The Chester River Hospital Center is currently compiling a list of all obstetricians in the Elkton and Easton areas who are accepting new patients. This list will be made available to the public prior to March 31. Any patient who has an emergent medical condition, including active labor, should call 911.
“Chester River Hospital Center is committed to our community,” Gardner said. “Sadly, there are no easy answers or quick fixes to restoring birthing services locally.”
Rupert Jackson Jr. says
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The services this hospital has provided to the community for many years are just another casualty in the “No-Growth, Not Another House” contagion that’s decimated our upper shore counties.
Another sign that families and the young are moving away, in large numbers and as quick as they can. Maybe the anti-business conservation groups can expand their offerings to midwifery? Since who remains here is forced to drive out of county for almost all goods and services (WalMart or not!), why not a hospital too.
Instead of Save the Bay, how about Save the Ba-by?
bill arrowood says
so, this is, at very least, the end of anyone being born and bred in chestertown or kent county? a sad day indeed. let us hope that it is only temporary and the hospital will make provisions for restoring the facility if a new doctor(s) can be found.
Jack Offett says
Rupert – That is a mind-numbing, but so accurate conclusion. The no-growthers have held that development means families, families means kids, kids mean schools (as if they arrived fully formed adults). This approach always lead to the death spiral of communities because without young families to rejuvenate the population, we are left with a progressive older population on fixed incomes unable to maintain the communities they created.
Ken Noble says
Isn’t this interesting….Karen O’Connor’s comments are now gone and the original article from CEO Ross has been reformulated. Here is what I would have responded to Ms. O’Connor:
I am not convinced that “quality follows volume”….How do we know that the VOLUME didn’t go to the QUALITY.
A common mistake in policy analysis is to fail to recognize which factors are causative and which are correlative…as I have written in the Spy elsewhere. Everybody has a nice suit on and they drive nice cars to board meetings, but are they thinking straight?
You are right, Karen. We will never know what kind of quality Johns Hopkins University, the Washington Hospital Center or Anne Arundel Medical Center would have brought. The board was barred from negotiating with them, I understand. No use rehashing that….what a nightmare.
We are not alone in this. How have other rural areas responded? I do know that Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center uses outreach to a much larger rural area as an opportunity to study and improve rural medicine. Would JHU have done that? I have asked that before and understand that is an INTERNATIONAL mission of theirs, but not domestic. Is it too late to get UMMS to recognize some opportunity here, rather than just seeing us as a backward buffer or flanking outpost in a war of attrition?
What really ticks me off is that the guy who delivered my son, who somehow dealt with the USArmy’s culture of “SNAFU” (situation normal, all freaked up) to the rank of MAJOR is attacked in the way that it was at 9 am this morning.
Ken Noble
Male Medical Spouse, 24 years and still counting
(we could be anywhere….)
D LaMotte says
Gosh. I had no idea that if we had a Wal-mart here then the hospital would be packed full of patients.
Interesting.
Ken, I agree about Dr. Moorman. Amazing doctor!
Karen O'Connor says
Ken I find your personal attack inappropriate in this forum. I simply stated some facts about healthcare delivery in general and this institution specifically. What makes you think the only subject of my comment is obstetrics? I delivered children here just as you and others and received premium care. Every new family is entitled to it.
Chestertown Spy says
Editor’s Note. The Chestertown Spy policy on comments remains in effect. Given the seriousness of this particular issue, we encourage all participants to focus on the issue at hand rather than risk accidentally personalizing the debate.
Jessica says
I find the number of deliveries annually to be an excuse to not put time or money into providing the county with a quality maternity department and quality OB/GYN services. Women in Kent County are delivering babies! Women in Kent County are having gynecological evaluations! Women in Kent County are leaving the county for these services! Why? They are leaving the county for these services for a reason. By no stretch of the imagination does a woman choose to drive 45minutes to an hour for an appointment if there is an equally good one in her back yard. Think about it!
Mary Wood says
It is hard to understand that volume is the criteria by which a hospital provides patient care. The Kent and Queen Anne’s Hospital was created by citizens who wanted a place where their health needs were met. These same citizens gave generously to support it through the years. Obstetrical and pediatric services are vital to a vital community. Did any Board member imagine what it would be like if a woman started labor on a Sunday night ,with traffic backed up to Wye Mills to get to Annapolis?
Lainey Harrison says
Well Mary, I know exactly would happen in that situation you outline. The mother would give birth, hopefully, in the back of an ambulance with a skilled paramedic. Lets all pray there are no complications that require more than that paramedic can provide for mother or baby. But wait, QAC is currently hiring EMTs at 15.00 an hour under contract and promoting a paramedic, boots on the ground, to a “Captains” desk to push paper. Lovely. We get the hourly guy with no benefits, healthcare, or advanced degrees. Administration gets bloated. Doctors disappear. Nurses follow doctors. Somebody please put a stick in the back of the ambulance so the momma atleast gets to bite down on it while delivering her own baby. This whole situation is very very sad.
Kate Livie says
In response to the comments regarding the lack of young in this county, I have to disagree with you. There are plenty of young people around here who are employed, settled, and intend to stay- they are not gone, but just a smaller demographic (maybe less visible) than the larger proportion of Kent County’s elderly- many of whom have retired here. I should know- I am one of those young people.
While it seems a shame that our local hospital has lost its obstetrician- I have two nieces and a nephew that were born in Kent and Queen Anne’s- I just anticipate that like many other things, I might have to drive a bit to bear my future children.
And no, I don’t think driving to certain amenities (like health care) is an unreasonable price to pay for living in such a beautiful and unspoiled place- even if it means my children will their birth certificate read “Easton, Maryland”, just like mine.
Paula says
There certainly are young people who are in Kent county. There are not as many as could be due to the lack of job opportunities, however some young people choose to stay, come back after college or are college students that decide to stay and raise families here. I am very disturbed that pediatrics and obstetrics are closed. I know that we travel at least 45 minutes to get to many stores that we do not have here, but care for a child should not be one of those things for which we have to travel. As a parent of two children, I have utilized the pediatric ward MANY times due to asthmatic issues when my children were babies. A 45 minute to an hour ride with a child who is having breathing issues is too long, 5 minutes seemed too long at the time. The care that my children recieved at the hospital here was wonderful. We spent two weeks in there during Christmas with both children hospitalized some years ago. I am glad that my children do not have those issues any longer because the prospect of having your young child hospitalized is bad enough but to have to drive 45 minutes to and from the hospital each day is hard, especially if you have other children at home and work. I understand that with serious illness hospitalization farther away may be necessary. There should be an option for the children of this area when an illness can be taken care of in a local hospital. As for obstetrics, if I were to have a baby now, I would drive 45 minutes to have my doctor deliver my baby. Under normal curcumstances that is not a big deal but with emergency situations that is too far. We seem to be going backwards in our community with the care of children rather than forwards. I hope the pediatricians stay. There are still a lot of children who require medical care in this community! I suspect that as a community we are not privy to what is really taking place in the upper management of Chester River Hospital Center, there is more to the story than we are getting I am sure. It is a very sad time for this area with the changes that are taking place in our hospital.
Courtney O'Connor says
Personalizing this debate really takes away from the issue at hand, which is the future of care in our community. Lets stick to the issues, Ken.
Courtney O’Connor
Born and bred Chestertown girl, 27 years AND STILL COUNTING
Marie Florczyk says
lets say a mother delivers in an ambulance which would probably be best care, from what i heard isn’t it true that Wayne Gardner who is on the board owns Best Care? gee what a coinidence and from what i do know the people who are protecting the upper echelon at crhc do so they have been rewarded with promitons new titles etc, all the employees want is the truth and that is not about to happen sad i left a big city to come here to hopefully retire and this happens this is why i left Maryand and moved back to delaware all i say is liar liar pants on fire
Samuel Shoge says
I cannot help but wonder if we are taking active steps towards recruiting the hospital personnel we need here in Kent County. I have to agree with Mary Wood in that volume cannot be the only concern among retaining doctor services here in KC. There has to be other underlying issues that are not being brought to the forefront. The way I see it, If Washington College can recruit young students coming from large metropolitan areas like the DC metro, Baltimore, Long Island, and northern New Jersey to rural ol’ Chestertown–a place that has charm and character but not exactly the entertainment value young people are looking for–and KEEP them here, how is it then that Kent County has a hard time retaining vital services, especially when we have so many good things to offer doctors, especially young doctors raising families? I don’t think this is a VOLUME issue as much as it is a RECRUITING issue. We can do better.
Anne Harris says
By all accounts, the Obstetrical Department at Chester River Hospital Center is attractive and welcoming. The accomodations appear spacious and comfortable. Unit nurses get rave reviews for the quality of their care and for the compassionate expression of that care. Dr. Moorman’s patients provide glowing testimonials to their satisfaction with the services he provides. Given this winning trifecta, one might anticipate, maybe even expect, incremental growth in the number of deliveries over time. In fact, just the opposite is true.
Perhaps some measure of appreciation is due both Dr. Moorman and the Hospital for managing to keep “Maternity” viable for so long in a climate of more and more regulation and expense and less and less flexibility and reimbursement.