Lebanon
The three-year project, which is funded by a grant of up to $350,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is one of 15 state-based projects to examine rural health trends in the 21st century, according to a Tuesday news release from D-H, a Lebanon-based health system.
“More than half of all U.S. counties do not have (obstetrician/gynecologists) to serve pregnant women,” Fisher, an OB/GYN, said in the release. “It’s important that we have the resources in every county to support the care and education of women where they live.”
D-H’s announcement of this project comes less than six months after D-H affiliate Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital in Lebanon closed its birthing center and merged obstetric services with the nearby Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Four of the nine recent closings in New Hampshire have been in the Upper Valley, including at Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont, New London Hospital — which also is affiliated with D-H — and Cottage Hospital in Woodsville. Springfield (Vt.) Hospital and Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, both federally qualified medical centers in Vermont, are now the only Upper Valley hospitals other than DHMC that still have birthing units.
The narrowing of these options for women and families was the subject of a recent discussion at Open Door Integrative Wellness, a wellness center offering a variety of health care services and classes, in White River Junction.
For his research project, Fisher will work with researchers from the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., Sarah Benatar and Stacey McMorrow, who have experience in studying patterns and outcomes of women’s health care.
Together, they aim to understand why New Hampshire’s maternity wards are closing, as well as the effect of these closings on pre-term births, cesarean sections and newborn health, as well as on emergency personnel and hospital emergency rooms. The researchers also hope to find ways to mitigate such effects on rural communities.
“As we gather results and make our findings, we plan to engage with the major stakeholders who control maternity care: the insurance companies who pay for these services, legislators and policymakers who regulate health systems, and the professionals who deliver care,” Fisher said in the release. “We need to be sure they understand the importance of what we need to do in the future to guarantee that mothers and babies in New Hampshire have the care needed to ensure good outcomes in order to live long, safe, productive lives.”
Results are expected to be published in 2021.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
