Texas' "maternity deserts" grow as staff shortages close rural labor and delivery units

[TexasTowelie]

by Eleanor Klibanoff, Texas Tribune


A few weeks ago, a woman gave birth at Hereford Regional Medical Center, a critical access hospital in the Texas Panhandle.

Or, rather, the woman gave birth in the parking lot at Hereford Regional Medical Center after driving over an hour to get there, according to Jeff Barnhart, the hospital’s chief executive.

Barnhart said he’s heard it all over the years: patients giving birth at rest stops and in ambulances and in the car on the side of the road. The hospital’s patients come from a 1,600-square-mile area in the Texas Panhandle, and some of them just don’t make it in time.

But now, even patients who do make it to the hospital have another variable to contend with: critical staffing shortages and exploding COVID-19 case counts. There are days when Hereford Regional doesn’t have enough nurses to operate the labor and delivery unit, forcing it to divert patients 50 miles northeast, to Amarillo.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/20/rural-hospital-texas-maternity-care-obstetrics/

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Can't really blame 100% shortages on lack of help...some hospital chains have closed

multiple outlets in some states (like in rural outstate MO), to cut 'costs' and such.

[Scrivener7]

2. It's just women. No action will be taken until something affects men's medical care.