OSF Sacred Heart president Ned Hill says the moment their birthing center closed temporarily last October, they immediately began working on when it could open again. The announcement of the reopening has been made, and they are aiming for September 1st. Hill says providers from both OSF and Carle Health will continue to be used at the birthing center. Hill stated that Carle has always been a great partner and will continue to be. But the problem this past October was that overall adequate personnel was no longer available.
AUDIO: Last fall we had our OSF providers leave, and the Carle providers left. So you went from three and four providers down to zero in a short period of time; that was the deciding and eliminating factor. We had the staff. We had the facilities. We had the beds. We had the equipment, supplies, medications,; but no one actually for delivery. You can’t have a unit without the doctor. And so, Carle has been a great provider from day one.
President Ned Hill addresses the media about the reopening of the OSF Sacred Heart Birthing Center, set for this coming September
An additional factor this time is that while OSF is reopening their birthing center at Sacred Heart, they are closing the one at OSF Heart of Mary Medical Center in Urbana. Hill says he cannot project how much traffic that will add to the center at Sacred Heart in Danville. But he says the Sacred Heart Birthing Center, as it existed before, should be more than adequate to resume operations.
AUDIO: We believe we’ll have the capacity to meet the needs of the community, and any mothers who decide to come to Danville from the Champaign-Urbana area, to also handle those. So we’re not concerned with capacity at this point; just getting everything ready for that September 1st start date.
Hill says that at the time of last October’s temporary closing, the Sacred Heart Birthing Center was operating at about half of its capacity.
