Western Suburbs Hospital abruptly cuts ties with midwives and family medicine doctors

Citing the risk of losing liability insurance, Western Suburbs Medical Center will no longer allow midwives and family medicine doctors to attend births at the hospital, abruptly cutting ties with the popular group of health care providers from next week.

Monday’s sudden announcement sparked anger from midwives and family medicine providers at PCC Community Wellness Center, who have been delivering babies at West Suburban in Oak Park for at least 20 years. The hospital and these providers have become a destination for pregnant women who want a more holistic birth with minimal medical intervention. PCC primarily treats low-income blacks and Hispanics on the West Side, but women from throughout the region sought help from a PCC obstetrician.

Annette Payot, director of obstetrics at PCC, has been delivering babies in West Suburban for about 15 years. PCC providers deliver the majority of babies born at the hospital, Payot said.

“We are heartbroken and angry for our patients,” Payo said, adding that PCC is trying to determine whether the move is legal.

She decried how this could limit birth opportunities for people of color, as medical and political leaders across the country take notice Black women especially die before and after childbirth. People living in communities near West Suburban have some of the least access to maternal health care in the region, according to the American Medical Association.

“It feels like the end of an era,” Payot said. “It’s very frustrating right now, at a time when birth equity is something of a buzzword. More attention is being paid to maternal morbidity and mortality. Finally, money is flowing in this direction, and it really is real. And at the same time, similar things happen that we cannot do anything about. It just makes you feel powerless.”

Research shows midwives tend to have low C-section rates and better outcomes for both parents and babies, but West Suburban is the best last hospital in the Chicago area reduce the amount of this type of assistance or not invest in it at all.

Payot said PCC staff learned through personal phone calls and email that midwives and family medicine doctors would no longer be allowed to deliver babies in West Suburban. Their three OB/GYNs can continue to provide care.

According to the letter obtained by WBEZ, West Suburban CEO Dr. Manoj Prasad said the hospital’s insurance brokers warned that providing professional liability insurance “will be severely limited or likely impossible” if current birth practices continue.

“Prudence requires that (West Suburban) take immediate action to reduce the risk of loss of insurance coverage for the entire hospital as a whole,” Prasad wrote to Dr. Paul Luning, PCC’s chief medical officer and president of West Suburban’s medical staff.

Prasad wrote that only doctors who have completed OB/GYN residency training will be eligible to assist in childbirth. Prasad did not respond to messages for comment.

Payot said PCC has its own medical malpractice insurance, and providers within the organization are skeptical of Prasad’s arguments. They said he did not provide any documents to support his claims about limiting who could have children.

In a separate email Tuesday to hospital workers, Prasad wrote that two new OB/GYN clinics would open. The hospital already has a team of obstetrician hospitalists with medical providers who transport any person who arrives. This letter does not mention PCC or its legacy in West Suburban.

PAC first store at the hospital in 1980 with a three-room clinic. PCC is now deeply rooted in West Suburban, not only delivering most of the babies, but also helping train resident physicians.

Dr. Morgan Madison is a family medicine physician at PCC who has been delivering babies in West Suburban for nearly a decade. She also takes care of newborns. PCC midwives helped her give birth to her own baby.

“The focus for all of us right now is what can we do for this community to ensure there are diverse birth options when a community that has historically been disenfranchised by the health care system sees this as another thing I can’t choose.” – Madison said.

Payot said the relationship between PCC and Prasad’s suppliers was “complicated”. Prasad bought the hospital in 2022 and has been one of several owners over the years. Resident doctors said, the hospital fell into disrepair under Prasad’s leadership – with broken elevators and air conditioning, newborns are left in a hot nursery because the coolers have failed again, according to the Sunday Journal.

On Wednesday, eight midwives gathered in a garage near West Suburban to grieve together. Carrying donuts and coffee, they talked about patients who need them, from recent migrants to people without health insurance. For midwives, this hospital is home.

“A lot of people, when they think of midwives, they think of crunchy granola, which, you know, has a higher level of health literacy, is more affluent, and we provide care to people who don’t have those same opportunities. said Mary Leung, PCC midwife. “This is a tragedy.”

They then headed to the hospital to gather the things they had brought over the years, from books and furniture to plants, and strategize how to quickly reach patients and continue caring for them before the midwives and family medicine doctors were forced to leave the hospital . West Suburban, November 29.

Instead, low-risk patients without medical complications can give birth with the assistance of midwives at the PCC Birth Center in Berwyn. They can give birth in West Suburban under the guidance of a PCC obstetrician. And several PCC providers have now been given the privilege of delivering babies at Ascension St. Mary’s Hospital in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village neighborhood.

Kristen Schorsch covers public health and Cook County for WBEZ.