'Last-ditch effort': MHCC decision a drastic response to drastic situation

Patients will still be able to access localized care throughout their pregnancy, but delivery will be channeled to Laramie after the Carbon County birthing center closes June 15.

“It’s just doing the right thing for the folks,” said Ivinson Chief Operating Officer Terry Moss about working with MHCC to help fill the void. “If we can help out, we want to be able to do that.”

Care providers from Ivinson Medical Group will travel to Memorial Hospital of Carbon County and North Platte Valley Medical Center in Saratoga once every other week in addition to offering telehealth options, Moss said. Patients also can expect to see some of the same staff members they are used to working with.

While the goal will be to have as many births as possible take place in Laramie, emergency room staff at Memorial Hospital of Carbon County will be trained in the event that transferring a mother and child is unsafe, said hospital CEO Ken Harman.

The training for the emergency room personnel is the same as traditional obstetrics staff and will include neonatal resuscitations and pediatric components. The hospital will provide training opportunities for staff members to refresh their skills in those areas.

“The difference is those who do it every day are practicing at a higher level than someone who does it twice a year,” Harman said.

He explained that the need to close the hospital’s labor and delivery unit was a culmination of impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and staffing issues that are affecting rural hospitals around the nation.

“Rather than not having any women’s services, we’re partnering with Ivinson to continue to do that,” Harman said. “It will be our mechanism to make sure we have good care for all of the patients.”

Memorial Hospital of Carbon County had been struggling financially throughout the pandemic, but was hit particularly hard over the past few months, Harman said.

The hospital has lost about six nurses in the past five months. It’s increased wages and offered incentives for picking up shifts for local nurses, but the efforts were not enough to retain staff, Harman said.

The hospital ended up needing to bring in 12 traveling nurses, who work for a short amount of time and charge a significantly higher rate. Doing that burned through 40% of the hospital’s cash reserves in two months, Harman said.

In addition, insurance companies only allow hospitals to make minimal increases to their prices, he said. With inflation being higher than the permitted increases, the hospital’s only financial option is to cut costs, and the obstetrics unit is losing money.

Harman explained that the decision to close the unit was a “last-ditch effort” to protect the hospital from reaching a higher risk of closure than it already has.

“This situation is not unique to MHCC. This is occurring in almost every hospital in America,” Harman said. “The cost structure is going up so quickly that no hospital has been able to sustain it.”

Though there isn’t any grant funding immediately available for the hospital, it will explore the potential to seek American Rescue Plan Act money for necessary construction repairs once that money becomes available.

“We have to collaborate with each other to provide care in different situations. We want to make sure we can take care of patients,” Moss said. “We have to do that across Wyoming just to keep health care in Wyoming.”