After 135 years of helping Pueblo moms to carry their unborn babies and deliver them into the world, representatives from St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center announced Wednesday that the hospital will discontinue its Birth Place and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, effective Dec. 15.

The move is a 180-degree reversal from the announcement made last month by St. Mary-Corwin CEO Brian Moore, in which Moore stated the hospital would continue its birthing and labor services after a months-long stakeholder's process called Values In Action had concluded to keep the hospital's OB and NICU services in place.

"It was decided after the input from the VIA group that we would, at that point, continue to provide services," said St. Mary-Corwin Interim Administrator Mike Cafasso.

"But because of changes in the marketplace and decisions made by some of the physician groups to consolidate their practices into one location, we've been forced to take a new look at this thing. As a result of that, we've made the very difficult, and somewhat emotional, decision to close the OB and NICU units here."

Cafasso explained that not long after the VIA process made the decision to keep labor and delivery services intact, an independent group of physicians who practice at St. Mary-Corwin informed hospital personnel they would be consolidating their practice at another hospital, leaving St. Mary-Corwin without integral resources to provide OB and NICU care.

"The business decision, which we respect, made by the physician group to consolidate to one hospital impacted our ability to provide that service here," Cafasso said.

"We looked at all possible alternatives before we had to come to this final decision. We looked at bringing in outsiders, we looked at perhaps using OB physicians from other markets and our sister hospitals to come in and provide the service, but none of those proved to be fruitful or productive."

The lack of providers, Cafasso said, combined with the financial viability concerns that forced the hospital to take a hard look at its services through the VIA process in the first place, proved an insurmountable obstacle for the hospital to continue providing birthing services.

Cafasso said approximately 35 St. Mary-Corwin employees will be affected by the closure, and the hospital is working with those individuals to place them in other positions, either within St. Mary-Corwin or its parent company Centura Health.

"We'll do everything we can from outplacement services to finding what we can within our own house here to provide these folks jobs, as well as providing them with after-exit packages," Cafasso said.

Although the closing of the birth center will impact where some prospective Pueblo moms go to give birth, the move is not anticipated to strain the birthing services of Pueblo's other major hospital, Parkview Medical Center. Parkview CEO Mike Baxter told The Pueblo Chieftain in June that the hospital is in a strong position to accommodate the influx.

The move to close the Birth Place is just the latest in a string of sweeping changes made by the hospital in 2017. St. Mary-Corwin closed its acute inpatient rehabilitation unit on Aug. 31, and CEO Brian Moore announced his resignation from the hospital last week.

Cafasso said the quick succession of Moore's resignation and the discontinuation of birthing services is purely coincidental, and although there are no large announcements planned by the hospital in the immediate future, the unpredictable nature of the health care industry makes future assessments and sustainability evaluations inevitable.

"In today's health care environment, if you look at any of the healthcare publications, you will see that community after community, state after state, hospital after hospital, we're all dealing with the same challenges of limited resources and lesser reimbursement rates, and that does not look like it's going to let up anytime soon," he said.

"I know we've been through a lot in the last couple months, but everything that we're doing here is to build a sustainable future. We want to be here for the next 100 years. And there are things that need to be reviewed, like we've done, and take action as needed."

zhillstrom@chieftain.com