OCEANSIDE, Calif. (KGTV) — Administrators for Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside made what they called a difficult decision Thursday night, voting to close its maternity ward and NICU.
“I think it’s an emotional decision for everybody," hospital spokesperson Aaron Byzak told ABC 10News. "I mean, this hospital has been delivering babies quite successfully for 62 years and to be in a position where you have to suspend operations is a difficult decision, but it’s the right decision for right now.”
The number of women coming to Tri-City to give birth has been in steady decline, with administrators saying the average is now only around one per day. That has led to a loss of millions of dollars annually.
Byzak says that the closure is expected to take place Oct. 1st. However, administrators are actively seeking to partner with another medical provider that would allow the center to re-open in the future.
“I imagine that women and newborn services, in the relatively near future, will make a return and will do even stronger than it was right now,” he said.
Nurses and other staff will be given the option of switching to different departments or retraining for other positions. While nurses who spoke with ABC 10News say they appreciate the transparency throughout the decision process, they say they are worried about the impact of the closure.
“Our patients are everything. Our families are everything," said Julie Anchustigui. "Now knowing that this isn’t going to be here for them, a lot of us are really, really concerned about the whole safety of what’s going to happen.”
The nearest options will now be Palomar Medical Center in Escondido and Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas, each around a 20-minute drive from Tri-City with normal traffic.
Advocates for women's health say this will create considerable difficulty for families during an emergency, or for those whose newborns are in the NICU.
“They’re working class. They’re the poor working class. They just don’t have that type of transportation. Yet now we’re asking them to leave here and go away somewhere else and hopefully get there in time without having something horrible happen to them," Anchustigui said.
Jessica Wade from March of Dimes, a nonprofit which works to improve the health of women and babies, believes the closure will have a significant impact.
“With them having one fewer option, I always think about the quality — the access to quality care for these families. And transportation for the nearest quality care for them," she says.
Wade says many families do not have transportation or cannot afford the costs of driving the greater distance to the nearest NICU.
In addition, she points out that not every maternity ward is the same. Women who do not prefer the next closest option may now be out of luck.
“We all have our choices. We all have the hospitals we want to give birth in and we research and we look at the stats and we look at the rates. And when you have these closures, you’re kind of forced into what’s closest," she says. "It changes your whole birthing experience. Women and birthing experience will grieve the experience they could have had and it takes away from the time being able to spend with that baby."
