Grove Hill Memorial Hospital will end labor and delivery services in August and convert to a Rural Emergency Hospital. It will leave a large region of the state without a hospital that delivers babies.
Published: Jul. 12, 2024, 6:15 a.m.Dr. Max Rogers doesn’t want to sugarcoat the fallout of closing one of the last labor and delivery departments in rural southwest Alabama.
Grove Hill Memorial Hospital this week becomes the latest rural hospital to announce plans to reduce inpatient care in order to convert to a Rural Emergency Hospital. The federal Rural Emergency Hospital program is a lifeline to keep hospital doors open, but it also has a cost, including labor and delivery.
When Monroe County Hospital closed its labor and delivery department in November, he said, some of those patients turned to him and the patient count for his practice increased by 35 percent. All those patients will have to find other doctors and labor and delivery centers. Rogers has lobbied city, county and state leaders to save the labor and delivery department. The service loses money, and government leaders have not been willing to provide enough funds to make up for those losses, he said.
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