Images courtesy of Warren General Hospital An artist’s rendering of renovated maternity rooms at Warren General Hospital.

About 200 times a year, “Rock-a-bye Baby” plays through speakers throughout Warren General Hospital.

In what might otherwise be a maternity desert, Warren General Hospital is an oasis.

“Maternity services have been continuously offered at Warren General Hospital since hospital inception in 1898,” WGH CEO Rick Allen said.

There are maternity deserts — communities where maternal and child health services are simply not available.

“If you look across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the United States, a lot of community rural, and even suburban, hospitals, have dropped their maternity and OB/GYN,” Allen said.

There are several reasons hospitals — including regional ones — have discontinued those services.

“It’s very difficult to recruit OB/GYNs,” Allen said. “It’s difficult to recruit and keep those doctors. We’ve been fortunate.”

There are two OB/GYN physicians working in the hospital system now.

“Dr. Bill Murray and I, our nurses, and midwives love what we do,” Dr. Daniel Burns said. “Our goal is to provide every expectant mother with a large dose of kindness and our best professional expertise and emotional support nearby, to make their labor and delivery a wonderful experience for them and their family.”

Dr. Edwina Clark, pediatric hospitalist, joined the hospital about a year ago.

“Outstanding young physician,” Allen said. “Her sole focus is inpatient pediatrics. Recently, with the RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) hitting the pediatric population, we’re really had an increase in pediatrics.”

She sees every baby born in the hospital — 200 to 250 each year. Clark is not the only one made aware of births. Each time there is a birth in the hospital, Rock-a-bye Baby plays over the speaker system.

“As with all units, it’s hard to recruit nurses,” he said.

And, there are just fewer babies being born in many of those rural areas.

Regionally, Bradford, Kane, Titusville, and Corry no longer have maternity departments.

That leaves the main options as UPMC Chautauqua in Jamestown — which is fairly close, but is in another state, causing insurance problems for some patients — regional hospitals that are an hour or more away, and Erie.

“A lady in this county would either have to travel to UPMC Chautauqua — and you’re crossing state lines — or you’re going to Erie… an hour, hour and a half,” Allen said. “There are days coming up, you’re not going to get there.

“If we would shut down, our patients aren’t going to be able to get to any other places,” Nursing Director of WGH Maternity and Behavioral Health Units Melissa Turner said. “Deliveries are going to be in the emergency room or in their cars trying to get places. A lot of our patients don’t have the resources to travel that far.”

“We can provide care locally,” Registered Nurse Pam Salvaggio said. “They don’t have to travel.”

“If we weren’t here, where are you going to go?” Salvaggio said. “An hour is a long time when you’re in labor.”

Closing the unit could also lead to fewer soon-to-be mothers seeking pre-natal care.

Over the years, the hospital has made an active commitment to keep maternity services.

Without that commitment, the easy decision would have been to drop it.

“It is a program we have to subsidize — slightly north of $1 million a year,” Allen said.

But, that $1 million investment is worth it to the leadership.

“It’s important for us to continue this,” Allen said. “The board said, ‘We need to offer services our community needs.'”

“When we chose to partner with Allegheny Health Network and LECOM… they were all-in,” he said. “There were other partners… ‘That would have to close,'” he said. “When they brought that up in the meeting, the board shut down and said, ‘That’s not for us.'”

“In every orientation class, I talk to every group,” Allen said. “That’s a service we choose to offer here.”

Having a department isn’t enough. The hospital is looking for “both clinical quality and service metrics,” Allen said.

The department includes LDRP — Labor, Delivery, Recovery, and Postpartum. “They don’t have to switch rooms,” Turner said.

“We have an operating room on the unit as well,” Allen said.

“We are able to follow the patient and the baby all the way through,” Registered Nurse Melody Montemayor said. “It’s good for the nurse and it’s good for the patient.”

Registered Nurse Sierrah Stein previously worked in maternity at another hospital and said she prefers the community feeling at Warren General. “I went to Buffalo General, which is a huge hospital,” she said. “You don’t know anybody. It’s a whole different vibe.”

AWARD-WINNING

Warren General has more going for it than simply having a maternity department.

“We’ve won maternity awards,” Allen said.

“We are a Silver Safe Sleep certification,” Turner said. “It promotes back to sleep — no stuffed animals, no blankets in the crib… trying to decrease the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).”

“We use Halo Sleep Sacks here for the babies,” she said. “Recently we started a program where we’re able to give parents a brand new one on discharge.”

“We do have lactation services here,” she said. “We have a childbirth educator — we do childbirth classes. We have a car seat technician.”

And, there are internal educational efforts.

“I do have a couple other staff engaged in helping keep our whole department current,” Turner said. “We do simulations. We do drills.”

RENOVATIONS

The hospital isn’t standing pat with its maternity department.

“We’re looking at close to a $2 million renovation on the unit,” Allen said. “We’ve been talking about that for a couple years now.”

“We’re getting there,” he said. “We’re going to be starting that this winter and getting it done.”

“The idea of that renovation is obviously to modernize,” Allen said. “It’s a nice setting. I want something that’s clean, simple, nice-looking, comfortable, the ability to have your partner with you.”

The hospital’s OB/GYN team recently moved into the hospital.

“Warren General Hospital acquired the OB/GYN practice that was previously held by Allegheny Health Network (in North Warren),” Warren Medical Group Practice Administrator Dan Grolemund said. “The new clinic name is Warren General Hospital Obstetrics and Gynecology.”

“Beginning a month ago we improved the convenience of our services,” Burns said. “Our OB/GYN office is now under one roof on the first floor of Warren General Hospital.”

“As part of Warren Medical Group, we felt we could offer more comprehensive care to our community members, all managed locally, and on the same electronic medical record system,” he said. “So far, it’s been a tremendous success.”

The North Warren office was relocated to the hospital. “The relocation of the office will provide our OB/GYN patients with enhanced access to other Warren General Hospital providers and services,” Grolemund said. “It’s a nice addition to our community.”

“They are right adjacent to the ultrasonographers of the hospital and a much more sophisticated system,” Allen said.

There are areas that are maternity deserts. But it hasn’t happened in Warren.

“We’re fortunate that we’ve had the economic ability, the strategic ability, the recruitment,” Allen said. “It’s unique that we’re able to continue to offer the service.”