Bluffton (Ind.) Regional Medical Center and Dukes Memorial Hospital in Peru, Ind., both part of Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Lutheran Health Network, have shared plans to end their inpatient labor and delivery services due to decreased birth rates.
Bluffton Regional Medical Center will end its labor and delivery services May 23 and Dukes Memorial Hospital will end its services June 13, according to a Lutheran Health Network May 14 news release shared with Becker's.
The hospitals saw a combined around 30% decrease in births from 2020 to 2023, with the Bluffton hospital averaging 11 births or less per month and Dukes Memorial averaging five.
"Fewer deliveries create challenges for hospitals to maintain staffing levels and for providers to regularly apply their skills and maintain clinical competencies," Debra Close, CEO of Dukes Memorial Hospital, said in the release. "Patients can access safe, quality childbirth services at a number of hospitals in our region that are performing a higher number of deliveries each year which allows those hospitals to invest in the specialized equipment and the medical providers necessary to sustain a high-performing OB program."
Administrators from both hospitals are working with their obstetrical teams to transition non-emergent patient deliveries to other hospitals.
Childbirth services at LHN's Lutheran Hospital and Dupont Hospitanl, both in Fort Wayne, and its Lutheran Kosciusko Hospital in Warsaw, Ind. will be available for expecting mothers following the service closures.
Patients who experience obstetric-related medical emergencies at Bluffton hospital and Dukes Memorial will still be treated in the hospital's emergency departments.
Employees affected by the service closures at both hospitals will have the opportunity to move to other LHN positions, the release said.