Nurses question Mercy Medical’s commitment to maternity and newborn services

SPRINGFIELD — Nurses at Mercy Medical Center are questioning the hospital’s claim that it needs to close its maternity center next month because it has been unable to recruit health care providers.

In an online speakout Thursday, they said Mercy’s owner, Trinity Health, wasn’t willing to pay enough to land good candidates. They also challenge the institution’s statement that the closing of the Family Life Center is “temporary,” arguing that the hospital is taking deliberate steps to end maternity and birthing services that serve Springfield’s poorest residents.

The hospital announced early this month that starting Dec. 8, it will no longer provide in-patient maternity and newborn services and will redirect patients to Baystate Medical Center. That news came as a surprise to nurses on the unit represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association.

Dawn Seymour, a longtime registered nurse at Mercy and 22-year employee of the Family Life Center, joined a Zoom forum Thursday on which she and other hospital staffers reacted to that news.

Seymour questioned the hospital’s claim that the closing of the center is temporary. “There is no way they can get this unit back up and running. They lost everybody. Their time to build it was months ago,” she said.

“How can this happen? What is going to happen here – and why is the state allowing this?” Seymour asked.

Donna Fur, another Mercy nurse who joined the discussion, hosted by the MNA, said it seemed to her that Mercy did not put the needed effort into recruiting staff for the maternity center.

While the center had 15 care providers a decade ago, according to another current employee, that number had fallen to just one in what employees characterized as a deliberate effort to deplete resources, and costs, at Mercy.

“It was a shift that you didn’t really notice right away,” Fur said. “They wouldn’t aggressively recruit doctors. There wasn’t any big push.”

“We were told that we didn’t make money, never made money,” Fur said. “I feel that it was just their plan over 10 years. They’re setting themselves up for this exact moment.”

While Mercy had been delivering over 1,000 infants a year, that had fallen to fewer than 800, employees said.

Mary K. Orr, a spokeswoman for Mercy, said Thursday night that staffing gaps drove the hospital’s decision.

“We have made this difficult decision due to significant provider and nurse staffing constraints that have persisted over several months despite concerted efforts to recruit and retain FLC clinical colleagues,” she said in a statement, in response to questions from The Republican.

Orr said Mercy will continue to handle outpatient care. “Our certified nurse midwives, with physician collaboration, will continue to provide exceptional prenatal and postnatal care in our outpatient sites throughout Western Massachusetts,” she said.

And Orr said Mercy has not given up on restarting operations provided now by the Family Life Center. “We will continue to pursue all options to resume continuous, safe, high-quality maternity care at Mercy Medical Center,” she said.

Mercy has cared for a higher percentage of Medicaid (and MassHealth) patients in its birthing center – 68% – than Baystate, according to Nykole Roche, who joined the forum.

“Low-income patients are disproportionately impacted by this closure,” she said. “Black and Latino birthing parents are disproportionately impacted. … The closure of the Family Life Center directly impacts poor people. There’s no other way to say it. … The racist implications of the closure … can’t be overstated.”

‘Care reduced’

Jaime Hyatt, co-chair of the MNA bargaining unit at Mercy, and an employee since 2000, said he has witnessed a “constriction of services and contraction of care” at the hospital, including in the emergency department, as providers have left for opportunities elsewhere, reducing the promise of a community hospital.

“You guessed it, more departures followed … and care was reduced,” he said.

That led to a for-profit group from California taking over the operation of the emergency department.

Hyatt said attempts to recruit doctors to work at the Family Life Center were “laughable,” with job postings on Indeed listing what he described as uncompetitive salaries.

If the center closes permanently, Hyatt said, Springfield and the region will lose a service that’s been vital to families, even as Baystate takes over deliveries.

“Where are you going to get the more personalized or individualized care?” he asked. “We are different spaces and we provide different functions to the community.”

The traditions of “the Mercy,” as the hospital is known, are unique, Hyatt said.

“We are your community hospital,” he said. He accused Trinity Health of making the hospital “just a line on its balance sheet.”

David Schildmeier, a staff member of the MNA, said the union met Wednesday with Gov. Maura Healey on the issue of preserving the Family Life Center. He, too, expressed doubts about claims the closing is temporary.

“How can you call this a temporary closure when you’re laying off staff?” he asked. “This is an engineered closure.”

He called on the state Department of Public Health to hold a hearing on the loss of the center and accused Trinity Health of misrepresenting its intentions. “They’re tried to skirt that process,” Schildmeier said, referring to actions the DPH would take if Trinity Health disclosed a plan to shutter the center.

“We’ve raised those issues at the highest levels,” he said.

Orr, the Mercy spokeswoman, said the hospital is working with state officials on the matter. “We have been in contact with representatives of the Department of Public Health regarding these ongoing challenges and have followed the appropriate regulatory processes throughout.”

Ole Kushner Hermanson, a director of the MNA, suggested that uncertainty about the future of birthing care at Mercy is bad for the community.

“This is a public institution … that is supposed to serve the public good,” he said. “Part of that is to serve the whole public good, not just the part of it that makes them money. … We’ve got to stand up for our services.”

The Zoom call drew several Springfield city councilors and councilors-elect, including Victor Davila, Melvin Edwards and Justin Hurst. All promised to do what they could to see the maternity care restored at Mercy.

“I am concerned with the possible permanent loss of the maternity unit,” Davila said.

“Obviously I sympathize with the situation. I’m as supportive as I can be,” Edwards said.