2 more area maternity units to close

The delivery options for pregnant women in the region just keep shrinking.

Two community hospitals in the suburbs - Brandywine Hospital in Coatesville and the former Central Montgomery Medical Center in Lansdale - now say they are closing their maternity units, bringing the number that have closed in Southeastern Pennsylvania since 1997 to 17.

Chestnut Hill Hospital's unit officially closed Tuesday.

According to the Maternity Care Coalition, that leaves 25 hospitals in Philadelphia and the four suburban Pennsylvania counties that have maternity units. (See list at http://go.philly.com/maternity.)

Hospitals say that low reimbursement rates from insurance companies, especially for women on Medicaid, and the high cost of malpractice insurance often make running a maternity unit a money-losing proposition.

JoAnne Fischer, executive director of the Maternity Care Coalition, said it could be particularly difficult to run small units. "The rule of thumb is if you're doing under a thousand, you probably can't do a very good job."

Abington Memorial Hospital announced yesterday that it had completed the purchase of Central Montgomery Medical Center and renamed it Lansdale Hospital.

Linda Millevoi, an Abington spokeswoman, said the medical staff was told that its small obstetrical unit, which delivers fewer than 400 babies a year, will close Feb. 1. Obstetricians can apply for privileges at Abington, which has a much larger program that delivers 5,200 babies a year and has the capacity to care for 6,000, Millevoi said.

Abington said neighboring hospitals also had indicated they had room for more maternity patients. Abington and Lansdale are about 12 miles apart, Millevoi said.

In a news release, an Abington official said Lansdale's program was not large enough to support services it considers vital: a neonatal intensive-care unit and perinatology support for high-risk pregnancies.

Brandywine's program has been delivering about 240 babies a year. In a news release, the hospital said that its two obstetricians had resigned and that it had been unable to recruit more. The Brandywine unit is scheduled to close by the end of this year.

Brandywine has patient-transfer agreements with Phoenixville Hospital and Jennersville Hospital, each of which is about 15 miles from Coatesville. All three hospitals are owned by for-profit Community Health Systems Inc.