At meeting, speakers want to keep OB services at Ochsner St. Mary

Public officials on Wednesday challenged the data on which Ochsner based its decision to end labor and delivery services at Ochsner St. Mary. And two women told harrowing stories about labor complications that threatened mother and child before they were rushed to the Morgan City hospital.

Eliminating those services doesn’t mean that expectant mothers undergoing life-threatening emergencies won’t show up at Ochsner St. Mary, said emergency room nurse Mary Loupe.

“The worst-case scenario — I want to know how we’re going to handle that case,” Loupe said, speaking at a meeting of the Hospital Service District No. 2 board, which owns the hospital that Ochsner operates under lease.

Also Wednesday, Ochsner Bayou Region CEO Fernis LeBlanc, a former Ochsner St. Mary CEO, repeated the health care system’s argument for the change: The hospital is shifting its resources to provide care for a growing number of seniors while the number of women of child-bearing age is shrinking.

The hospital announced March 1 that it will end labor and delivery services at Ochsner St. Mary on April 1. Ochsner is consolidating those services in this region at Ochsner St. Anne in Raceland. Twenty-three hospital employees affected by the change will be offered other positions in the company, the hospital said.

The number of St. Mary people over 65 is expected to grow by 10.9% in coming years, LeBlanc told the board, while the number of women of child-bearing age declines 6.2%.

The hospital handles only about 7% of the births in the region, or about 16 births each month, he said. The hospital delivered only four babies in each of two recent months.

“With so few deliveries, it’s difficult for doctors and nurses to maintain the standard of excellence mothers deserve,” LeBlanc said.

“While this was a difficult decision,” he told the board, “it was in the best interest of the mothers and the babies. ... It is vital to look at the needs of our patients and realize how to make changes over time.”

Ochsner St. Mary will continue to offer gynecological services, 3D mammography and bone-density scans, LeBlanc said.

Among the responses during a public comment period:

—Former state Rep. Sam Jones, who now works in the administration of Gov. John Bel Edwards, said he talked with Edwards on Tuesday about the end of labor and delivery services at the hospital.

“We’re in support of continuing to have babies born here,” Jones said.

Edwards’ intervention helped bring Ochsner into the Morgan City hospital after LifePoint announced its decision to abandon its lease in 2019.

—Morgan City Mayor Lee Dragna said he believes the numbers on which Ochsner based its decision are “just not true.” Utility hook-ups and participation in youth sports programs indicate that Morgan City’s population is growing, not shrinking, he said.

Dragna said that if the hospital needs advertising, the city government can help. He floated the idea of bringing back a Hospital Service District No. 2 tax that could raise money for the effort.

“If that thing shuts down,” Dragna said, “I don’t think it’ll be possible to open it back up.”

—State Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, also disputed Ochsner’s numbers.

Allain chairs the board of Hospital Service District No. 1, which owns Bayou Bend Health System, formerly Franklin Foundation Hospital. That hospital delivers six to eight babies a month, fewer than Ochsner St. Mary.

He also objected to the decision to end labor and delivery services in only a month.

“We were given no heads up, no time to prepare, no notice,” Allain said.

—Parish Councilman James Bennett, whose district includes Ochsner St. Mary, said he supports Dragna’s comments.

—Parish Councilman Dean Adams said a 40-minute trip for emergency obstetrical care is too long.

“We have a great staff here, and we want to keep them here,” Adams said.

—Paige Tang said the trip to Franklin takes 28 minutes, 43 minutes to Terrebonne General or Thibodaux Regional, and 48 minutes to St. Anne.
Some women have a hard time getting to other hospitals, Tang said, and many are Medicaid recipients.

And time can be precious.

Tang said read a statement from an unnamed friend who had planned to give birth at an out-of- town hospital. When complications developed, she was rushed to Ochsner St. Mary,. She lost her child, but she survived.

"This is a real person," said Tang, "a person who would no longer be here, no longer would be around for her children. A wife, a daughter, an aunt, a friend.

"This is what we need to think about when we're making the choice to close our local obstetrics floor."

—Emily Deroucher said that two years ago, she began hemorrhaging late in her pregnancy. Deroucher called her obstetrician in Thibodaux and was told to go to Ochsner St. Mary immediately.

The trip took five minutes, she said.

“Ochsner saved my life and my daughter’s life and I’ll always be grateful ...,” Deroucher said. “If it hadn’t been for Ochsner, I don’t know if I or my daughter would be here.”