Hospital Jeopardizes Mothers, Babies, Say RNs, While Using Funds on Controversial Management Company Quorum Health Services

Registered Nurses strongly oppose the recently announced closure of Calais Regional Hospital (CRH)’s Obstetrics department—a move which nurses say will leave patients without labor and delivery services in Calais and surrounding communities, Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (MSNA/NNOC/NNU) announced today.

Calais Regional Hospital's (CRH) CEO Rod Boula notified employees that CRH's Tennessee-based management company, Quorum Health Resources, will be closing the CRH Obstetrics (OB) department on January 1, 2018. Nurses point out this will create an unsafe situation for new mothers and babies and will add hardship to local families.

"We are deeply disturbed that Calais Regional Hospital would treat this critical department as dispensable, which is a disservice to mothers, babies and families," said MSNA President Cokie Giles. "MSNA stands behind all of the CRH employees in the face of this very serious and dangerous decision by the hospital."

CRH's service area includes Baileyville, Eastport, Dennysville, Pembroke and the rest of Northeastern Washington County. Melanie Howard, an OB RN, said, "Our community depends on us. How in the world can we force expectant mothers to go far outside of our community for the essential services that we provide?"

While CRH has committed to not laying off any of its staff in this closure, the services now provided by the OB staff will come to an end.

"This hospital spends over $400,000 on an outside management company based in Tennessee that has a history of reducing services to communities in order to extract more money.  Resources should be spent right here, in Washington County on patients that need these services," said Emergency Department RN Beth Ingersoll, Chief Steward of the Calais-area MSNA chapter.

Since 1992, CRH has been managed by Quorum Health Services. Its $400,000 per year fee does not include the salaries of the management personnel it employs.

"We need to save our OB, boot Quorum out of our community and stand up for our patients,” said Ingersoll. “That's what CRH employees and our union are all about."

The public is encouraged and welcome to attend a candlelight vigil to save the CRH OB on Friday, June 2nd at 8 pm at Triangle Park in downtown Calais, Maine.