Irene Hernandez, a community advocate, said she knows of two mothers who had to be emergency airlifted to other hospitals. Another gave birth on the side of the road. Those who have transportation have struggled to reach hospitals on time in the midst of their labor. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll these things put mothers and infants in harm\u2019s way,\u201d said Hernandez, who co-led the Community United to Save Our Birthing Center coalition. \u201cThere is no access. They just wiped out these essential services.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 22-page audit was undertaken partly in response to community and legislator outcry over the closure, Lisauskas said. It took a wide-ranging look at the health systems in the years leading up to the closure. <\/p>\n
The report took no issue with hundreds of millions of dollars in grants, including over $25 million received from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Association. However, the audit criticized how the hospital system spent and accounted for $6.2 million in state distributions from federal pandemic relief money. <\/p>\n
The health system told auditors the money had gone toward $10.6 million in employee bonuses, each ranging from $125 to $500, distributed to thousands of employees in November 2020 and September 2021. However, the health system could not provide sufficient accounting records to show that is what the money went toward, auditors alleged, and the system provided no proof of payments made to employees. <\/p>\n
Two years later, UMass Memorial closed a maternity center located at HealthAlliance Clinton Hospital in Leominster, citing a shortage of obstetricians, nurses, and other professionals. <\/p>\n
The report suggested the $6.2 million could have been used to invest in the workforce needed to operate and maintain the center, providing a \u201cpublic benefit \u2026 rather than reimbursing itself for UMMH expenditures incurred in prior years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report acknowledges that the grant funding agreement was very broad. In a response contained within the audit, the state\u2019s Department of Health and Human Services even said the grants were used for permissible purposes. <\/p>\n
However, without investing the money in its maternity services, the audit alleged that the health center created \u201ca health disparity for its patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile reimbursement for bonuses may be permitted, the general public, whose tax dollars were spent, would likely have been better served had this money been used to ensure community access to critical healthcare services, such as maternity care,\u201d the audit states. <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AYIS5UDHJ3XYPFA46OCRXZ4OKA.jpg\")
A recent state audit said UMass Memorial Health could have used state grants to support a maternity unit at its Leominster hospital that closed in 2023.Suzanne Kreiter\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n
The report recommends both better accounting records and an audit trail, and says the health system should \u201creassess\u201d the need for maternity care in the region and work to mitigate health disparities caused by the closure. <\/p>\n
UMass Memorial pushed back against the findings, saying in a response included in the audit that it met all its reporting obligations to the state and provided a spreadsheet of the bonuses to state auditors. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe funds were used to mitigate [UMass Memorial Health\u2019s] financial strain from COVID-19 and support the compensation of UMMH\u2019s employees, which were clearly permitted and appropriate uses of the funds,\u201d the response says.<\/p>\n
The audit additionally dinged the health system for how it recorded and reported births to the state. UMass again disputed the findings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn all cases, UMMH appropriately maintained birth records through its secure electronic medical records system,\u201d the system said.<\/p>\n
Lisauskas, with the auditor\u2019s office, said the office has no authority to enforce its recommendations, but it will check in in a few months on any changes the health system has made, and could conduct a follow-up audit. <\/p>\n
The 2023 shuttering of the maternity unit marked the 11th such closure in the state since 2010<\/a>. <\/p>\n At the time, the hospital said it needed to close the unit because of staffing shortages. Protesters, community members, and legislators worried it would imperil the lives of mothers and infants.<\/p>\n The Department of Public Health had even determined the hospital\u2019s maternity services were essential, and pressed the hospital for more robust plans to ensure access to care. <\/p>\n The health system said it would provide transportation support for at least three years after the closure and said it could easily accommodate the additional patients at its Worcester hospital. <\/p>\n Dr. Tiffany Moore Simas, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the health system, said UMass Memorial has taken a number of steps since the unit\u2019s closure to ensure care is maintained, including increasing staff and a $600,000 commitment of resources to obstetrics needs in the region, which includes the transportation program contract that runs through September 2026. <\/p>\n \u201cWe remain committed to delivering high-quality care and to evaluating and responding to the evolving needs of our patient population,\u201d Moore Simas said in a statement.<\/p>\n However, Barbara LaBuff, a nurse at UMass Memorial Health\u2019s Memorial campus in Worcester, said she hasn\u2019t seen many patients in the two years of the transportation program\u2019s use. <\/p>\n LaBuff said it has also been challenging for the over 60-bed maternity unit at the Memorial campus to accommodate a higher number of birthing mothers. She said nurses are encouraged to discharge patients earlier to make room for other mothers, which nurses believe has contributed to a higher number of readmissions. Women waiting to be induced no longer come to the hospital at appointed times, but have to wait to be called until there is an opening. At times, the hospital has had to utilize beds in other wings. <\/p>\n UMass said its readmissions were in line with peers and were unrelated to the Leominster closure, and said the hospital has always used flexible spaces when volumes have been higher. <\/p>\n Yet on any given shift, at least one of LaBuff\u2019s three patient assignments is from the Leominster area, over 20 miles away, she said. She said many nurses on the floor often hear from patients concerns that they weren\u2019t going to make it to the hospital in time for their delivery. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a disservice to (the Leominster) area in general,\u201d LaBuff said. \u201cThey are the most vulnerable patients in our state. It\u2019s unfortunate the money was not utilized like it should have been.\u201d <\/p>\n Jessica Bartlett can be reached at jessica.bartlett@globe.com<\/a>. Follow her @ByJessBartlett<\/a>.<\/p>\n