Numerous healthcare organizations recently shut down medical units and services to shore up finances, focus on more in-demand services or improve patient care lapses.
Here are eight hospitals and health systems that have closed units or ceased medical services temporarily or permanently in the past month, as reported by Becker's Hospital Review, beginning with the most recent.
1. Carolinas Hospital System-Marion to cease delivery services
Mullins, S.C.-based Carolinas Hospital System-Marion will stop providing labor and delivery services in March 2018.
2. Allegheny Health Network to shutter hospice unit
Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network will close its nine-bed inpatient hospice unit at its West Penn Hospital, which is also in Pittsburgh, Jan. 25.
3. South Carolina hospital to cease delivery services
Mary Black Health System Gaffney (S.C.) will stop offering labor and delivery services March 31, 2018, as it transitions those services to Mary Black Health System Spartanburg (S.C.).
4. United Medical Center to permanently close obstetrics ward
Washington, D.C.-based United Medical Center will not reopen its maternity unit, which temporarily closed in August after district health officials uncovered deficiencies in the department's screening, clinical assessment and delivery protocols.
5. UPMC Horizon to close ICU at Pennsylvania hospital
UPMC Horizon will close the intensive care unit at its Greenville, Pa.-based hospital Feb. 1.
6. Illinois officials allow Centegra Health to suspend acute inpatient care at Woodstock hospital
The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board unanimously approved Crystal Lake, Ill.-based Centegra Health System's proposal to suspend acute inpatient care at its 108-bed hospital in Woodstock, Ill.
7. Steward closes maternity unit at Massachusetts hospital over staffing disagreement with Partners HealthCare
Boston-based Steward Health Care shuttered the labor and delivery unit at Morton Hospital, a 125-bed facility in Taunton, Mass., alleging the Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital and its parent company Boston-based Partners HealthCare, which staff the department, are no longer sending enough physicians to care for patients.
8. Memorial Hospital shutters ICU
Pawtucket, R.I.-based Memorial Hospital permanently closed its intensive care unit Nov. 12.