Nurses Demand Saint Alponsus Keep Baker City Birthing Center Open
By Joe Hathaway on Wednesday, June 28th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
BAKER CITY – (Release from the Oregon Nurses Association) On June 22, St. Alphonsus executives announced their intent to permanently close the obstetrics department and birth center at Saint Alphonsus Medical Center – Baker City on July 30. The hospital’s birth center serves approximately 125 families a year through labor, childbirth, recovery, bonding and parental education and training. More than 90% of all babies born in Baker County are born at Saint Alphonsus Baker City.
In fact, nurses and healthcare professionals have provided safe, family-centered childbirth experiences at the hospital for more than 100 years, bringing state-of-the art care to families in Baker County and beyond. The abrupt closure has sparked near-universal opposition from local doctors, families and the hospital’s own foundation and community advisory boards. Both hospital boards “were reassured multiple times that the OB department was not going to be closed” in recent months and hospital president Dina Ellwanger cited the birth center as one of the health system’s bright spots in October 2022.
Local nurses and allied health professionals are also speaking out against the decision.
“It’s heartbreaking to see St. Alphonsus executives turn their backs on families in need. Families in Baker County rely on this birth center. It’s a 45 minute drive to the next hospital birth center and that’s if I-84 is even open. We can’t tell people in labor to hold it. Nurses demand St. Alphonsus work with its health care providers and our communities’ families to keep our birth center open,” said Megan Nelson, RN and ONA bargaining unit chair at St. Alphonsus Baker City. “We don’t want to lose the skilled and dedicated nurses and health care providers who’ve chosen to make their lives here either. They’ve helped generations of families put their roots down in Baker County. We want to continue that tradition and ensure our community’s families can get the care they need close to home.”
The Oregon Nurses Association represents frontline registered nurses and allied health care workers at St. Alphonsus – Baker City and nurses at St. Alphonsus – Ontario.
St. Alphonsus executives also chose to close the intensive care unit (ICU) at St. Alphonsus Medical Center – Baker City earlier this year. In both the birth center and ICU closures, the hospital cited a combination of staffing shortages, lower patient projections and financial trends. St. Alphonsus is owned by Trinity Health, the 5th largest health care system in the country with $21.5 billion in annual operating revenue.
The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) is the state’s largest and most influential nursing organization. We are a professional association and labor union which represents more than 16,000 nurses and allied health workers throughout the state, including nurses and health care workers at multiple St. Alphonsus facilities. ONA’s mission is to advocate for nursing, quality health care and healthy communities. For more information visit: www.OregonRN.org.
