Adventist Health Tulare to close labor and delivery department

TULARE, Calif. (KFSN) -- The labor and delivery department will be closing at Adventist Health Tulare this summer.

On Monday, Adventist Health announced that the department will close on June 6.

The number of people using Adventist Health's Labor and Delivery Center in Tulare has dropped so much in recent years that the non-profit healthcare system says it's no longer sustainable to keep the doors open.

Data from the California Department of Public Health shows a decline statewide in the number of births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44.

In Tulare County, the fertility rate dropped from nearly 87% in 2012 to about 67% in 2022.

That's still more than 6,600 births in each of the last several years.

Last month, Adventist Health only delivered five babies, and only one delivery was planned.

"It has not been average, but that has been one of our low marks. So, we are the right thing to do if we need to make a decision for babies for the hospital, so taking pause and looking at this strategically," said Heather Van Housen, an Adventist Health Patient Care Executive.

Van Housen says on average there are between 100 and 120 pregnant women in the City of Tulare each month.

Recent records show less than 5% visit their hospital to deliver.

"We should be able to keep those 120 plus mommas and babies in Tulare, and so that is our strategic planning for the future, is who we partner with so we can keep mamas and babies in Tulare," expressed Van Housen.

A previous closure of the hospital itself may also be partly to blame.

Before Adventist Health took over in 2018, the former Tulare Regional Medical Center was closed for about a year.

The closure left providers with no choice other than referring expecting moms to other local hospitals.

We reached out to Kaweah Health in Visalia to get a sense of whether other Tulare County hospitals are seeing similar decreases in their Labor and Delivery departments.

To compare, Kaweah Health says it delivers an average of 400 babies each month.

In a statement, Kaweah Health Chief Nursing Officer Keri Noeske says:

"Our state-of-the-art Neonatal Intensive Care Unit has 23 beds and is staffed with a comprehensive, specialized team to provide our littlest patients quality care. Additionally, we've been partnered with Valley Children's Medical Group since 2016. This partnership enhances the care we provide to families, so parents don't need to leave Tulare County to get great care for their children."

In 2021, there were 4,546 births at the hospital.

In 2022, they had 4,545 births, and in 2023, they had 4,572 births.

That means Kaweah Health is handling more than half of the annual deliveries in Tulare County.

"Mamas aren't being referred today, or else we would have those 40 deliveries a month. So the community is already being referred out, so I think it's better to reinvest those resources into other community health needs," mentioned Van Housen.

Adventist Health plans to invest in orthopedics, MRIs and CT scans.

The non-profit also plans to continue expanding its network of doctors who are willing to refer their patients to the Tulare location.

For now, over 20 nurses will be impacted by the closure in June and have to relocate to other Adventist Health facilities.

Adventist Health does believe they will eventually have their Family Birth Center back open again.

They will remain open until June 6th.

If anyone has an emergency at any date after that they can still seek services at Adventist Health in Tulare.

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