FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – Carolinas Hospital in Marion will no longer deliver babies. The Marion labor and delivery staff merged with the Florence site.
Hospital officials note a decline in deliveries at the Carolinas Hospital in Marion forced the administration to make changes.
Officials say the hospital was delivering less than one baby per day.
“That is not unusual actually for some of the smaller community hospitals. Then the decision needs to made on what services do you continue and what services do you consolidate,” said Costa Cockfield, Chief Nursing Officer.
Cockfield says the low volume makes it hard to recruit specialized nurses.
“You don’t have the volume to keep that skill set up or maybe just keeping the passion alive.”
The Marion site will still have pre-natal and women’s services.
Women in labor will now have to drive or ride about 30 minutes to Florence. If there is an emergency a woman can deliver their babies in Marion.
“They have a very very good emergency department. All emergency departments are trained and ready to deliver. That is not necessarily what we want but sometimes it happens,” she said. “We do acknowledge that this will be an inconvenience for them but we are going to do everything in our power to make sure their experience here is great.”
The hospitals planned for the merge and invested about $4M into renovating the Women’s Center site in Florence with state of the art technology, two nurseries, and 20 rooms.
“Although they look home-like they are set up clinically for that delivery,” Cockfield said.
Cockfield says employees in Marion had the choice to stay at the site and move to another position or move to the new facility.
“No one lost their job,” she concludes.
The Women’s Center in Florence officially opened Thursday.
Patients were moved starting around 8 AM and one baby was delivered.
The full press release from Carolinas Hospital Systems:
Obstetric Services
On March 1, 2018, the hospital will merge obstetric services with Carolinas Hospital System-Florence. Scheduled, inpatient labor and delivery services will not be provided at Carolinas Hospital System-Marion after this date.
The Women’s Center of CHS-Florence delivers more than 750 babies each year. Recent investments of approximately $3.8 million have enhanced the care environment for expectant mothers, babies and their families including single room maternity care and a neonatal special care nursery.
Marion Medical Center OB/GYN will continue operating a clinic in Mullins to provide pre-natal care and other women’s services. Hospital women’s services will continue such as gynecologic surgery and diagnostic imaging.
Patients who are experiencing a medical emergency – obstetric-related or otherwise – can always come to the CHS-Marion emergency room. The experienced ER team is trained to provide emergency medical care and, if needed, can arrange for transfer to a higher level of care.
The number of women choosing to deliver their babies at CHS-Marion has been declining for the last several years – the hospital now delivers less than one baby per day. Nursing availability is steadily declining, and this has made it increasingly difficult for the hospital to recruit sufficient numbers of skilled, obstetric nurses to staff labor and delivery.
Mullins Nursing Center
A new space will be created for the Mullins Nursing Center by moving operations into the CHS-Marion building. Making this change will allow the vast majority of residents to have private rooms and easier access to emergency and acute care services when needed. Mullins Nursing Center will have 92-beds, with eight semi-private rooms for two residents each.
The hospital will delicense 84 acute care beds and initiate renovations to the third floor as well as the west wing of the second floor. Construction is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2018.
Rationale for Change
“We are adjusting our operations to retain high-quality hospital services and jobs here in Mullins,” said Parkes Coggins, Chief Executive Officer of CHS-Marion. “Our planning carefully considered the resources we have, people who live in our community and which services patients use the most. We understand our hospital’s importance to the physical health of residents and fiscal health of the region.”
This new model has been developed because continuing to operate the same way is not sustainable for the future. Fewer inpatient hospital beds are needed because more services can be provided on an outpatient basis, and payers are all pushing for patients to secure care in the setting of lowest cost.
Carolinas Hospital System-Marion will continue to operate 40 acute care beds – a 28-bed medical/surgical unit and 12-bed intensive care unit. Services will include cardiac, cardiopulmonary/respiratory, gastroenterology, orthopedics, intensive care, pediatrics, surgical, diagnostic imaging, laboratory, nutritional counseling, rehabilitation – physical, occupational and speech therapies, sleep center and wound care.