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WARREN – The Trumbull County Board of Commissioners has filed a complaint with the Ohio Department of Medicaid following Mercy Health\u2019s announcement that it is closing the labor and delivery unit at Saint Joseph Hospital.<\/p>\n
Commissioners said in the complaint that by closing the maternity ward, Mercy is \u201cdenying access to OB\/GYN care to [Trumbull County\u2019s] Medicaid recipients.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBy closing the only OB\/GYN services in Trumbull County at the St. Joseph’s Hospital, Mercy Health is creating an obstetric desert that directly mitigates their Mission Statement, leaving many Trumbull County Medicaid recipients with no immediate access to care,\u201d the complaint reads.<\/p>\n
Commissioners said that they already contacted Mercy and demanded they halt the closure. Now, they\u2019re calling on the Department of Medicaid to do the same.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the commissioners asked Mercy Health to provide the Board with several facts, including:<\/p>\n
The number of Trumbull County residents who utilize labor and delivery services at Saint Joseph Hospital<\/p>\n
The projected number of Trumbull County patients who would need to travel to Boardman for these services<\/p>\n
The anticipated increase and travel time for patients needing these services<\/p>\n
How Mercy evaluated the impact on emergency obstetric situations where time is critical<\/p>\n
The capacity at Saint Elizabeth Boardman to accommodate additional patients, particularly during periods of peak demand<\/p>\n
The specific staffing, physician, nursing, bed and emergency department resources that will be added to accommodate the increased volume<\/p>\n
The anticipated impact on EMS response times<\/p>\n
What contingency plans are in place when Saint Elizabeth Boardman reaches capacity or cannot accept an emergency patient<\/p>\n
How Mercy evaluated the impact of this decision on Trumbull County\u2019s existing healthcare structure.<\/p>\n
What specific measures Mercy Health will implement to ensure Trumbull County residents continue to have timely, equitable access to obstetric care.<\/p>\n
RELATED COVERAGE:<\/p>\n
St. Joseph Hospital to close its labor and delivery unit in December<\/a><\/p>\n Community reacts to Warren\u2019s St. Joseph Hospital cutting labor and delivery unit<\/a><\/p>\n More local, state leaders condemn planned closure of Saint Joseph labor & delivery unit<\/a><\/p>\n \u200bDownload the WFMJ app for your Apple<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Android<\/a>\u00a0smartphone or tablet to get our push alerts as news happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WARREN – The Trumbull County Board of Commissioners has filed a complaint with the Ohio Department of Medicaid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46,298076,86981,104377,298074,298075,106684],"class_list":["post-662233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-labor-and-delivery","tag-maternity-ward","tag-mercy-health","tag-saint-joseph-hospital","tag-trumbull-county","tag-warren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}