Rhode Island Hospital has filed an updated application with the state’s Health Department to expand its obstetrical unit. The hospital wants to offer seamless access to care for female patients, but some fear a duplication of services with Women and Infants Hospital.
Rhode Island Hospital wants to create a nearly 31-bed obstetrics unit at a cost of $43 million dollars. The new unit would open in 2020 and include a full range of services for pregnant women, including those considered high risk.
Most babies in Rhode Island are delivered right across the road, at Women and Infants Hospital, which has expressed concern about Rhode Island Hospital unnecessarily duplicating services. But Rhode Island Hospital chief of women’s services Doctor Margaret Miller says her hospital will offer a different model.
“The model for obstetric care needs to provide a fully integrated service, as opposed to the business-as-usual approach to obstetrics is in isolation. We feel like it should really be within a full service hospital where the services are very comprehensive.”
Women and Infants Hospital officials say they already provide integrated services. They also point to the decline in the number of births in Rhode Island. In a statement, Women and Infants Hospital President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Marcantano said:
“Indeed, there is no need for additional obstetric beds in Rhode Island, where the birth rate has declined over the past rate and is projected to be stable or continue to decline over the next decade.”
The Department of Health must now review Rhode Island Hospital’s application.
