South Bay doctors have asked the state Department of Public Health to investigate the recent decision to close the labor and delivery unit at Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista, citing safety concerns.
Scripps announced a so-called “consolidation” decision last week to move its obstetrics operations 19 miles north to Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego in Hillcrest, allowing the Chula Vista hospital to accept patients needing long-term evaluations. It was suggested that space be made available for additional inpatient units. . Such departments are needed, executives say, to relieve patient pressure on facilities' busy emergency departments.
In a letter sent after Scripps notified employees and medical staff of the changes, which will take effect within 90 days, Dr. Kofi Sefa Boakye, who said he has been delivering babies in the South Bay for 33 years, told Dr. Thomas Aragon. He wrote: The director of the California Department of Public Health asked the agency to conduct an “impact assessment” of the Scripps decision.
Asked for comment on the request, the state Department of Health issued a statement Friday saying, “At this time, there is no need for CDPH to conduct an impact study of the type described.” State health and safety regulations require hospitals to “post advance notice of closures at the entrance to all affected facilities.”
Not only did the state agency point out that there was no need to do so, but it also ignored questions about whether it would investigate Sefa Boakye as he had requested. CDPH also did not respond to requests for further information on what specific measures the impact assessment would require.
The letter notes that Scripps primarily serves low-income mothers, including mothers with undocumented status, some of whom have severe medical complications such as placental abruption, a condition in which the placenta separates. They argue that Scripps has a moral obligation to keep the department open, as some people arrive with . The walls of the uterus suddenly separate, causing heavy bleeding and putting the life of the mother and baby at risk.
Seizures and septic shock are also emergency pregnancy conditions that require immediate attention, added Dr. Latisa Carson, another South Bay obstetrician-gynecologist with extensive experience delivering babies at Scripps Chula Vista.
“Our concern is that women arriving after the ward closures may not receive adequate care, potentially increasing maternal morbidity and mortality and neonatal morbidity and mortality in the South Bay. There's just that,” Carson said.
Scripps said it will continue to contract with an obstetrician to serve Chula Vista's emergency department. The idea, announced last week by authorities, would be to deliver and stabilize infants born with trauma, then transfer them and their mothers to Mercy San Diego in Hillcrest for treatment before being discharged home. It is.
But Sefa Boakye said dealing with an emergency pregnancy requires more effort than doctors. Highly trained nurses and other workers are also needed to deliver the best possible results.
“You're talking about serious medical malpractice liability for a doctor who happened to be on duty but didn't have proper backup and found himself in the middle of a situation like this,” Sefa said. Boakye said.
A nurse who worked at Scripps Chula Vista for more than a decade but declined to give her name for fear of being fined by her employer said she and many of her colleagues have the same concerns. Ta.
Not having a fully functional obstetric department is considered a risk in an emergency situation, she said.
“It would be the emergency room staff who would 'stabilize' and transport him,” she said. “Obstetrics and gynecology is not their specialty. It's not what they're trained to do.”
Last week, Tom Gamiere, Scripps' corporate senior vice president and regional chief executive for South San Diego County, said the details of post-merger emergency response are still being planned, but the organization is in a safe operating mode. He said he is working on it. Whatever it is.
“We strive to ensure safe handovers, safe transfers, and maintain safe continuity of care,” Glamiere said. “We're taking a systematic approach to this transition. We're not just adopting a program and it just doesn't exist anymore.”
Nurses said the department's 136 employees received severance documents this week for only about $4,000. However, the agreement required recipients to sign an agreement not to talk to the media about the closure and if they did, their severance pay would be reduced by $2,000.
On Friday afternoon, it was revealed that some jobs will be retained in Hillcrest. Nurses said a total of 15 new notifications have been added for full-time equivalent positions in labor and delivery at Hillcrest. However, that number appears to include only laborers and delivery personnel, and puerperal positions to care for mothers and babies after birth were not yet in place.
Nurses said healthcare workers in all specialties were in high demand, but with maternity wards closed, it would be difficult to find equivalent positions elsewhere. Working in a labor and delivery department at another hospital likely means losing shift priority, especially the ability to earn a day shift, which can take years, she said.
“We're starting at the bottom of the totem pole again, and that means going back to night shifts,” she said.
Carson and Sefa Boakye both said they have contracts with Scripps Chula Vista to serve “unassigned” or “drop-in” patients who are giving birth. I arrived at Scripps Chula Vista without a pre-assigned doctor.
But both said their concerns had more to do with ensuring safety than preserving contracts.
“You can do unassigned work at any hospital in the city, any hospital in this country,” Carson said. “I stay here because this is my home, this is my community, and this is where I want to serve.”
