UVMC President Kevin Harlan told the Miami County commissioners Feb. 1 that 2023 was a busy year at the hospital and parent Premier Health. However, 2024 began with announcement of the “gut wrenching” decision to close UVMC’s maternity unit, he said.

Harlan met with the commissioners at their request and heard their concerns with the closing at the end of February of the county’s only maternity unit. The commissioners also will be meeting later this month with the leader of Kettering Health about the closing Feb. 1 of the Kettering emergency department in Piqua.

"It has been a little bit of a perfect storm,” Harlan said of the closing. “About 18 months ago, we started losing providers at UVMC.” Five OB/GYN providers left for a variety of reasons including a retirement, one who moved the practice to Wilson Hospital in Sidney and another who relocated from the area with their spouse.

“We just struggled to find replacement physicians. All physicians are difficult recruitments right now, but OB (obstetrics) is right at the top,” Harlan said. UVMC was utilizing agency physicians, but those physicians are not known to those expecting a child and “moms want to know who is going to care for them and who is going to care for their baby. We cannot guarantee that with the agency physicians.”

Plus, he said, there is a risk of quality and safety issues with physicians who are not regulars at a hospital, lacking familiarity with policies, procedures and protocols, he said. Harlan also pointed out the hospital handled 325 births last year, down by about half from a couple of years before.

The commissioners said they had heard comments from a number of people about the loss of the maternity unit.

Commissioner Wade Westfall recalled the consolidation of the county’s three hospitals into one in the late 1990s. Pointing to the turmoil caused across the county by that consolidation, he said the new countywide facility was sold with “always somewhat of a promise that we would maintain a full service” hospital.

Among questions he frequently has heard is how Shelby County with around 48,000 people and Darke County with around 36,000 can have maternity units when Miami County with 108,000 population cannot.

Commissioner Ted Mercer said the county was the only one in the surrounding area to see its population grow in the last Census and includes in its goals attracting young families. “To have a vibrant community you have to have good quality of life, good schools, good infrastructure and comprehensive health care. It hits home with families when maternity services are not available when we have two major health care providers in our county,” he said.

The loss of the service was called disheartening by commissioners.

Commission President Greg Simmons thanked Harlan for talking with the commission and said he hopes UVMC can resume maternity services in coming years.

Harlan said there are no immediate plans for the hospital area housing the maternity unit.

“We are open to opening those service again,” he said. “A few years down the road, three, four or five years if something changes materially, if providers come our way … we could reconsider.”

In his report on other projects, Harlan said UVMC recently embarked on an expansion/renovation project for the operating room area. Last year, it built a new cardiac catheterization lab within the emergency department and next month will open a Women’s Imaging Center within the Imaging Department. Other projects have included replacing roofs and the continuing renovation of patient rooms.