Copyright MassLive
As Mercy Medical Center’s Family Life Center announced it is planning to temporarily stop maternity and newborn services in December, the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) is blaming the hospital’s parent company for “inaction,” “erosion of care” and for a decision that could have “lasting impacts.” Trinity Health, the organization overseeing the Springfield-based Family Life Center, said the services are stopping Dec. 8 due to significant provider and staffing constraints, including nurses, who have “persisted over several months despite concerted efforts to recruit and retain FLC clinical colleagues.” This summer, Mercy Medical Center registered nurses, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, ratified a new contract they said would aid retention and staffing. The contract included a 5% raise in the first year, followed by 3.25% increases in the second and third years. There were 385 nurses in the Mercy bargaining unit. However, the association claims that Trinity Health didn’t backfill vacant positions and that job postings offered wages below market rates. “This failure to adequately recruit and retain staff has led directly to the erosion of care we see today,” Jaime Hyatt, RN, co-chair of the MNA Bargaining Committee at Mercy and Dee Doyle, RN, co-chair of the MNA Bargaining Committee at Mercy, said in a statement. “Combined with rumors of a potential shutdown going unanswered by so-called leadership, this has created an environment where staff feel vulnerable and compelled to seek employment elsewhere.” Hyatt and Doyle say the situation “is a direct result of the mismanagement and lack of commitment by Trinity to invest in the Pioneer Valley and to honor the mission and values established by the Sisters of Providence over the past 150 years.” In 2024, Trinity Health of New England Medical Group posted a total profit of $475 million but an operating loss of $68.4 million, the Republican reported. But those numbers include figures from facilities outside Massachusetts, according to CHIA. Trinity’s Springfield hospital, Mercy Medical Center, alone lost $29.8 million. It had the lowest margin among independent hospitals and the 10th-lowest total margin among all hospitals at 9.2%. “Mercy’s financial losses are primarily driven by a public payer mix that is among the most challenging in the state, with nearly 80% of the patients Mercy serves being covered by government payers (Medicare and Medicaid), which pay far below the cost to provide care,” Mary Orr, Mercy spokesperson, said in a written statement. It’s a complex health care landscape, she said. Mercy is focused on initiatives and opportunities that are designed to maintain area residents’ access to care. Earlier this year, many doctors and staff at Mercy began looking for new jobs after Trinity Health told staff it planned to outsource staff in the emergency room to Vituity — a for-profit, physician-owned group from California whose arrival previously caused staff departures at hospitals in Connecticut. “It’s not good for Springfield,” one staff member told MassLive. And in June, The Trinity Health of New England Medical Group said obstetric and gynecological services at the Agawam location were being consolidated, and they were redirecting patients to the Trinity Health of New England Medical Group office in Chicopee or the Bicentennial Highway location in Springfield. However, at the time, the organization said, The Family Life Center at Mercy Medical Center remained “fully operational, offering labor and delivery, maternity, and newborn care services.” Now, the MNA fears the decision to stop maternity and newborn services, even temporarily, “could have lasting impacts on the health of mothers, newborns and families.” “We know from experience that so-called temporary closures can too easily become permanent. Once services are suspended, they often fail to return, leaving communities without vital care,” the MNA statement reads. Overall, there is a lack of women’s health services in the Pioneer Valley. “There is certainly a lack of providers in the area. So it really takes a village to find folks,” Robin Sauvé, executive director of Baystate Ob/Gyn Group, said. The medical practice reached out to its social media network, saying it was looking to hire providers. The announcement from Trinity in June prompted Baystate Ob/Gyn Group to explore ways to expand its women’s health services. Some of the major concerns cited by the coalition are a lack of bilingual services at other hospitals, difficulty with transportation, and lack of access to midwives. In 2020, the birthing center at Holyoke Medical Center closed. Members of the Coalition for Birthing Care Access, in partnership with the Massachusetts Nurses Association and Jobs with Justice, held a protest in August 2020 to advocate for access to services at the medical center and better communication with residents. Some of the coalition’s major concerns included a lack of bilingual services at other hospitals, transportation difficulties and limited access to midwives. After the closure, Holyoke Medical Center had an agreement with Mercy Medical Center, under which some of the center’s obstetrician/gynecologists would be on rotation. The hospital’s Family Life Center for Maternity provided delivery services for 91 Holyoke Medical Center babies in five months in 2020, as well as serving many patients in the obstetric triage area. “Mercy’s Family Life Center for Maternity provides services that meet the cultural and linguistic needs of our patients,” a spokesperson said in 2020. “We have staff that represent the community we serve that are supported by on-site Spanish interpreter services 7 days a week and remote services 24/7 as needed.” Now, patients will go to Baystate Health’s Baystate Medical Center through a cooperative agreement for triage and delivery services. “At the same time, we will continue to pursue all options to resume continuous, safe, high-quality maternity care at Mercy Medical Center,” a spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.
