Lincoln Hospital board to meet as grassroots effort to keep birthing center from closing continues
Attendees hold a banner at a public forum at Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta in June. (Drew Johnson/Staff Writer)
As officials with MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital consider a proposal to close its birthing center, some doctors say alternative staffing solutions should be considered to keep the ward open.
The 19-member Lincoln Hospital board is poised to meet Thursday morning and is expected to discuss the proposal, according to a hospital official. The meeting is closed to the public. A final decision by the board for MaineHealth on whether to close the maternity ward could happen as soon as Aug. 6, officials have said.
Hundreds of residents have shown up to community meetings and events as part of a grassroots effort urging the hospital to keep its birthing center open.
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Hospital officials have said that one of the biggest challenges is the difficulty in recruiting obstetricians and midwives to work at the rural hospital, which has low birth volumes. Lincoln Hospital delivers about 130 babies per year, an uptick in recent years but below the over 200 babies delivered annually 20 years ago.
Hospital officials have said they currently employ one part-time OB/GYN and two midwives, below the full staffing of four full-time OB/GYNs and four midwives.
Two doctors who work for MaineHealth — and are aligned with a community effort to maintain services — told the Portland Press Herald in interviews Wednesday that there are potential solutions.
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Dr. Valerie Donohue, a family practice physician who specializes in obstetrics, said there are ways to fill the service gaps other than MaineHealth’s staffing plan, including hiring more primary care doctors with obstetrics training. Donohue said she delivers babies for Lincoln Hospital and can take care of most deliveries. If there is a complex case or if a cesarean section is needed, she said, an OB/GYN would take over or the patient would be sent to another hospital.
Donohue said she would also like MaineHealth to consider sharing staff between the three closest hospitals with birthing centers — Lincoln Hospital, Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick and Pen Bay Hospital in Rockport, which are all part of MaineHealth. Mid Coast Hospital and Pen Bay Hospital both are about a 35- to 45-minute drive from Damariscotta.
Obstetricians, midwives and family doctors who specialize in obstetrics could work out of multiple locations instead of being tied to one hospital, Donohue said.
Dr. Timothy Goltz, a family practice doctor who used to deliver babies at Lincoln Hospital, said the hospital should consider hiring more primary care doctors who could deliver babies and be trained to deliver via cesarean sections.
Cindy Wade, Lincoln Hospital president, called the solutions proposed by Donohue and Goltz great ideas, but said recruiting for the birthing center is difficult no matter what position they’re hiring for.
“We have explored many different options and tried many variations on a staffing model over the past 30 years,” Wade said. “Our low birth volume continues to be a significant issue for providers we are trying to recruit. They want more birth volume.”
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MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital President Cindy Wade in front of the hospital on June 24. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
Wade said sharing resources between hospitals is a good idea, but there are logistical problems considering the distance between them.
“For instance, you can’t have an OB/GYN on call at Lincoln and Mid Coast hospitals at the same time. If there’s an emergency delivery that needs to be done at Mid Coast, the provider can’t be in Lincoln,” Wade said.
Maine and the nation are experiencing declining birth rates. Maine has seen 11 birthing centers close since 2015.
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Donohue said MaineHealth administrators have, so far, not been open to other proposed options to keep the maternity ward open. Goltz said he hopes the hospital board would consider delaying a decision on whether to shutter the birthing center, to give time for solutions and to see what the next governor might do to help keep rural maternity wards open.
All major gubernatorial candidates — Democrat Hannah Pingree, Republican Bobby Charles and independent Rick Bennett — have said publicly that they oppose the closure of Lincoln Hospital’s birthing center.
Margaret Reynolds, one of the founders of the Miles Delivers Action Coalition — the hospital was formerly named Miles — said the community response to their efforts has been “astounding.”
“The closings have to stop somewhere,” Reynolds said Wednesday. “People have to be able to give birth in their community.”
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Tagged: birthing centers, health care, MaineHealth
Joe Lawlor writes about health and human services for the Press Herald. A 24-year newspaper veteran, Lawlor has worked in Ohio, Michigan and Virginia before relocating to Maine in 2013 to join the Press. More by Joe Lawlor
