Framingham Union Hospital considering keeping scaled-down NICU open following public outcry
PHOTO | WBJ FILE
Framingham Union Hospital is part of the two-hospital campus of MetroWest Medical Center, which also includes Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick.
With just 27 days left before Framingham Union Hospital is set to close its 12-bassinet neonatal intensive care unit, the hospital’s parent company has said it will consider the public’s request to operate at least a NICU with reduced services, as neighboring NICUs are up to 50 minutes away.
The news came from Tenet Healthcare, the Dallas-based operator of Framingham Union, in a mandated letter sent Friday to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health after the state agency both deemed the hospital’s NICU medically necessary and demanded Tenet return a strategy for how the hospital would meet community needs following its closure.
Since the 1990s, Framingham Union has been operating a Level IIB NICU, delivering babies as young as 28 weeks with increased respiratory needs; but the hospital was losing its ability to provide respiratory services and maintain its Level IIB status because its unit was not delivering enough babies to meet the level’s threshold, said Virginia Ford, a registered nurse at Framingham Union’s maternity ward.
Framingham Union cited the hospital’s declining number of deliveries as a reason for closing its NICU, but Ford said the reason for the unit’s reduced deliveries was not because of lowered demand, but because the hospital has gradually cut down its OBGYN providers to only two.
Instead of opting to continue operating a NICU without advanced respiratory care, Framingham Union announced in April that it would close its NICU altogether and solely operate a Level 1A nursery, also known as a well-baby nursery, caring almost solely for fully healthy babies born at 35 weeks or older.
But because of pressure from both the DPH and healthcare providers, Framingham Union is now considering keeping its NICU open while dropping its respiratory services in compliance with NICU level requirements.
“MWMC leadership fully supports this approach as a means to balance patient safety, community expectations, and operational viability. Detailed assessments and active negotiations are underway to finalize the affiliation, staffing model, and operational logistics necessary to implement this preferred approach effectively," Denten Park, CEO of Tenet’s Massachusetts market, wrote in the letter to DPH.
Tenet did not return WBJ’s request for comment.
DPH’s response to the Framingham Union plan, including its consideration of operating a step-down NICU, was less than enthusiastic.
“DPH’s Determination on Essential Service should serve as the Department’s comments,” Katheleen Conti, DPH assistant director of media relations, wrote in an email to WBJ.
On the other hand, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the labor union representing Framingham Union nurses, was more optimistic, though tentatively so.
"While we believe this community still deserves a Level II B nursery, we were encouraged to see that Tenet has, however tentatively, agreed with our recommendation, to maintain a Level I B nursery, which will allow the hospital to still serve and protect newborns requiring a higher level of care and monitoring," MNA President Katie Murphy said in an email to WBJ.
In particular, the MNA is waiting to see just what the hospital means by using a clinical affiliation model to deliver care.
"As of now, we don't know what they mean by their desire to pursue a ‘clinical affiliation model,’ and will need to wait and see if 1) they follow through with that commitment and 2) exactly what that looks like from the standpoint of delivering quality patient care. It will be important to see the details of their plan, but until then we remain cautiously optimistic," said Murphy.
Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.
0 Comments