Trumbull County is about to lose its only hospital labor and delivery unit. Mercy Health will end deliveries at St. Joseph Warren Hospital by early December and consolidate all births at St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital in Mahoning County, the health system announced in an Oct. 28 news release shared with Becker’s Hospital Review.
For expectant families in Warren and across Trumbull County, the change means the birth itself — though not the pregnancy care around it — moves roughly 27 miles south to Boardman. Mercy Health said prenatal and postpartum care will continue with patients’ established providers, and only deliveries will take place at Boardman, according to the release reported by Becker’s Hospital Review and the Youngstown Business Journal.
Mercy Health said the decision followed an evaluation of long-term health care needs in the Mahoning Valley and ongoing challenges recruiting OB-GYN physicians, and that sustainably staffing two separate labor and delivery units had become difficult, according to the Business Journal’s reporting. The Warren labor and delivery space will be converted into a 25-bed inpatient unit, expanding the hospital’s general capacity, the release said.
Boardman, Mercy Health said, delivers approximately 3,400 babies a year and offers maternal-fetal medicine specialists and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit operated in partnership with Akron Children’s Hospital. The system is adding 20 maternity beds at Boardman to support about 1,000 more mothers a year, according to the release. “Having a Level III NICU and maternal-fetal medicine services in the same hospital means mothers and babies have immediate access to a higher level of specialized care if it becomes necessary,” James Kravec, MD, Mercy Health Ohio’s acute care chief medical officer, said in the release quoted by Becker’s Hospital Review.
Mercy Health also said Warren labor and delivery staff will have opportunities to transition to roles at St. Elizabeth Boardman or at another Mercy Health location, and that it will add Centering Pregnancy, Resource Mothers and Fatherhood Support programs at its Tod Avenue location in Warren, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.
The geography matters for families in labor. Boardman is in southern Mahoning County, and for patients coming from northern Trumbull County communities the trip is longer still. Supporters of the consolidation answer that a single, fully staffed delivery unit with a Level III NICU is safer than two thinly staffed ones — the trade-off at the heart of Mercy’s case, as presented in its release.
The announcement has drawn swift opposition from Trumbull County leaders. The Trumbull County Board of Commissioners filed an access-to-care complaint with the Ohio Department of Medicaid on Oct. 30, and local officials and the Ohio Nurses Association criticized the decision, citing access to maternity care and longer travel times for expectant mothers, the Business Journal reported. State Representatives Nick Santucci and David Thomas also released statements expressing disappointment with the decision, according to the Ohio House.
The stakes are heightened because St. Joseph is the last delivery unit left in Trumbull County. The former Trumbull Regional Medical Center ended maternity services in December 2020, the Tribune Chronicle reported, which means that once the Warren unit closes, every Trumbull County birth will require a trip out of the county — a drive of more than 30 minutes for many Warren families, the newspaper noted.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: Mercy Health has announced deliveries at St. Joseph Warren will end by early December, with Dec. 7 given to officials as the operational date, according to the Tribune Chronicle’s reporting; births consolidate at Boardman, which is expanding by 20 maternity beds; prenatal and postpartum care stays local; and Trumbull County commissioners have filed a state Medicaid complaint. What we’re still waiting on: whether the Ohio Department of Medicaid acts on the commissioners’ complaint, whether Mercy Health adjusts its December timeline in response to the opposition, and how Warren-area practices will handle patients whose due dates fall in the transition window.
What happens next is a December deadline and a state review. Unless Mercy Health changes course or state officials intervene, Trumbull County families due in December and beyond should confirm their delivery plans with their providers now and plan on giving birth in Boardman. NewsForce247 will follow the Medicaid complaint and any response from Mercy Health, and will update this coverage as those decisions are made. Related coverage: Marion County school-based health center in $55M rural health push.
Photo: Jack Pearce, CC BY-SA