Gilroy’s Saint Louise Hospital to close labor and delivery unit

A major blow to the medical community in Santa Clara County. This week, the Daughters of Charity announced it was closing several units at Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy. The changes take effect within 60-90 days.

“We announced to the staff on Monday our intent to discontinue in patient OB, maternal and pediatric care,” said James Dover, President and CEO of Santa Clara County Ministry Market.

Doctors who practice there and nurses face an uncertain future.

“My concern is the public safety is being compromised,” Laura Nuno, a labor and delivery nurse said.

She has been working at Saint Louise for 15 years. She’s afraid for expectant mothers due to give birth in the next few months. They may have to travel miles to get maternity care.

“So you’d have to go basically Hazel Hawkins which is about half an hour south or San Jose, which is about half an hour north,” Nuno said.

Dr. James Watson has 10-12 patients due in the next few months. He has to work out a deal with San Jose hospitals to be able to deliver babies there, but admits, he may not be able to.

“I talked to patients about getting privileges at other facilities,” Dr. Watson said.

“Frustrating part for the patients is that they go up to another hospital, about 45 minutes away and their primary OBGYN won’t be able to deliver them for the most part. If I can make it, I’ll try to make it but for the most part, I probably won’t be able to make it.”

Because babies are unpredictable, some of those births may happen in the E.R. department, straining the hospital even more.

“They’ll have to get extra training,” Nuno explains, “And I don’t know where they’re going to put it because you know they’re a very busy E.R. So it’s a big strain and we’re talking about emergency things, things that sometimes go bad and it’s not just the mom, but the baby too.”

Both Dr. Watson and Nuno say they are frustrated because this was something that could’ve been prevented.

“I find it very frustrating that the Daughters of Charity had a buyer,” Dr. Watson explains, “They did their due diligence and chose the correct buyer but for political reasons and motivations of specific unions, it didn’t go through and now look what it left us.”

After the possible sale to Prime fell through, the hospital had to make changes to stay afloat. It loses some $2 million on the OB unit every year. Other departments are also being cut, including business development. Other projects are being consolidated.

“The Daughters of Charity need to make sure that we stay strong and economically viable and we are ready for the next round of bidders coming through,” Dover said. “It’s really difficult. It’s hard on our staff and it’s really, I just, I can’t emphasize enough, this is not what we wanted to do.”

The hospital says it has been losing money because the birth rate in the area has dropped. Hazel Hawkins in Hollister also took in a lot of Saint Louise’s patients, and Kaiser patients go to San Jose. The nurse we spoke to also says some 75% of all births there are Medi-Cal patients, and because of the contract the hospital has with the government, Saint Louise doesn’t get as much reimbursement.