A pregnant woman waits to be examined by her OB-GYN at a community health center in Hialeah, Fla. A new study sheds lights on the increasing loss of obstetric services across America. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
At least a quarter of hospitals in seven states closed their obstetric services between 2010 and 2022, according to a new study in the journal Health Affairs. And in six states, more than 60% of hospitals lacked obstetrics by 2022.
Using data from the American Hospital Association and federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the researchers analyzed obstetric services at short-term acute care hospitals between 2010 and 2022.
The study included 4,964 hospitals.
Rural states saw the most profound losses. The states with the highest percentage of all hospitals lacking obstetrics by 2022 were: North Dakota (73%), Oklahoma (63%), West Virginia (62%), Louisiana (60%), South Dakota (60%) and Mississippi (60%).
The study sheds further light on the nation’s growing maternity health care deserts. At 18.6 per 100,000 live births, the U.S. has a maternal mortality rate far higher than other high-income nations. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that 80% of maternal deaths in the U.S. are preventable.
The “steady march of closures” has been an ongoing problem, said Katy Kozhimannil, University of Minnesota professor and lead author of the study.
Hospital leaders and experts have warned that Congress’ Medicaid cuts could have a ripple effect, leading to many hospitals no longer able to afford their labor and delivery units, which are expensive to maintain.
“Those programs are a primary source of support for maternity care,” Kozhimannil said. “Without changes to maternity care financing and organization, I expect that the trends that we have seen over the past couple of decades will likely continue.”
A dozen states saw a quarter or more losses of obstetric services among hospitals in rural counties, the study found.
‘Expensive and complicated’: Most rural hospitals no longer deliver babies
Across rural counties in Pennsylvania and South Carolina, close to half of hospitals — 46% — lost obstetrics between 2010 and 2022.
Those two states saw the highest percentage of hospitals losing obstetrics, followed by West Virginia (about 43%), Florida (40%) and Iowa (nearly 40%).
Along with Washington, D.C., urban counties in four states — Hawaii, Kansas, Oklahoma and Rhode Island — saw at least a quarter of hospitals lose obstetrics.
By 2022, two-thirds of rural hospitals in eight states (Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma and West Virginia) were without obstetric services.
Three states — Delaware, Utah and Vermont — had no obstetric losses between 2010 and 2022, the authors wrote.
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This post was originally authored and published by Nada Hassanein from Missouri Independent via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
