First, is a thoughtful, thorough, and needed response to PeaceHealths' June 7 statement provided to KEZI in advance of our Rally to #SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter.
Before reading, do be sure to look to the right side of this blog to see our growing list of support received thus far from Congressman DeFazio, Commissioners Sorenson and Berney, Rep. Marty Wilde, and Eugene City Councilor Semple as well as Centro Latino Americano, the Oregon Affiliate of the American College of Nurse Midwifery, and the American Association of Birth Centers.
1st: Correcting PeaceHealth’s June 7 Statement
In advance of our Rally on June 7, PeaceHealth issued the following
statement:
PeaceHealth’s Mission calls us to provide safe, sustainable, high-quality care for mothers and families in Lane County. As our decision to transition Birth Center deliveries to RiverBend has been made, our focus now is on how to offer an integrated model at RiverBend that continues midwifery services through partnerships and that preserves the valued services including prenatal and postpartum care for Lane County women. We are continuing to explore ways to repurpose the existing Birth Center facility to provide enhanced family-centered services for our community.
Our invitation to the Lane County Friends of the Birth Center leadership continues to be extended and we look forward to including them in our planning process. We value their viewpoint and share their desire to provide Lane County women with a spectrum of birth plan choices. It is our sincere hope that we will work together to make sure all expectant mothers enjoy safe, meaningful and empowering childbirth experiences today and well into the future.
We would like to respond to this statement to provide some clarifying
details.
PeaceHealth has invited a representative from the Lane County Friend of
the Birth Center to participate in a Work Group that will be tasked with
defining and designing the new low risk in -hospital model of care. We first learned of this Work Group on May 7,
during our first conversation with a member of PeaceHealth’s administration,
Dr. Scott Foster, Chief Medical Executive for PeaceHealth Medical Group. We held three informal information-gathering
meetings with Dr. Foster on May 7, May 8, and May 15. These meetings were held during the work day
at Coffee Plant Roasters and Friendly Street Market. To aid in our information gathering, over the
past few weeks we have also posed a number of questions via text to Dr. Foster
and have received his responses via text.
We have appreciated his responsiveness.
Additionally we have collectively had 5 brief and unscheduled phone
conversations with Todd Salnas, COO. The
first one was on May 15 around 11:30am when he called each of our co-chairs to
cancel our meeting at 3pm that afternoon.
This was shortly after we posted our statement about the birth center closure on the blog, as well as a post about meeting with Mr. Salnas, so the timing
appears to be more than coincidental.
When we pressed for an alternative meeting time he suggested he wouldn’t
be ready to meet with us for another two weeks or so. It’s unclear why he would have scheduled our
May 15 meeting if he was not in fact ready to meet with us, unless that had
been just for show.
Todd Salnas called us again on May 22. In this phone call we
specifically requested that he take a tour of the Birth Center (since, despite
already agreeing to close it, he had never actually been to the Birth
Center). We also clearly and
specifically requested a meeting in which our larger board could have the
opportunity to voice the concerns of our greater community.
Todd Salnas caucused with his team and responded to us on May 23, via
phone, stating the PeaceHealth Administration “only wants to convene with
people who want to talk about the future.”
We were frustrated and disappointed to hear this. We pushed for more details about the Work
Group and they still didn’t exist.
On Friday, May 31, Todd Salnas indicated via email that they were
working on draft charters for this Work Group and hoped to have something to
share with us in two weeks or less. That
was 11 days ago.
On Wednesday June 12, we called Todd Salnas to get an update on the
Work Group process. We had heard there
was a meeting yesterday and wanted to understand the nature of it and the
status of our invitation to participate.
The meeting was among the project leadership and they intend to send us
a copy of their draft project charter, participant structure, anticipated
project timeline and schedule, etc. early next week. In this call we again expressed our
frustration with how PeaceHealth administration is handling this situation and
unlike their predecessors have not engaged directly in person with our
community in collaborative problem solving to discuss potential ways to keep
the Birth Center open beyond August 30.
In our very first meeting with Scott Foster on May 7, he indicated a
desire to have the in-hospital low risk model plan all worked out by the end of
June in order to give PeaceHealth time to execute on the plan and be ready to
provide these services on Sept. 1. Considering
the current status of the Work Group it’s hard to imagine how a plan could be
finalized, let alone executed upon, by Sept. 1.
The PeaceHealth Oregon CEO has continued to refuse a direct meeting with Lane County Friends of the Birth Center; and while other staff members have offered informal time, they have cancelled all formal meetings without rescheduling. If PeaceHealth truly wants to 'include us in their planning process,' they ought to meet with us, the official consumer group of the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center and be prepared to hear our concerns as advocates for the midwifery-led birth center model of care.
The PeaceHealth Oregon CEO has continued to refuse a direct meeting with Lane County Friends of the Birth Center; and while other staff members have offered informal time, they have cancelled all formal meetings without rescheduling. If PeaceHealth truly wants to 'include us in their planning process,' they ought to meet with us, the official consumer group of the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center and be prepared to hear our concerns as advocates for the midwifery-led birth center model of care.
2nd: Call to Action
Following is our first Call to Action correspondence with community members who want to take concrete steps toward ensuring we preserve access to our midwifery-led and freestanding birth center which, among many, many important services, also provides out of hospital birth to women and families. Supporters, any and all action matters and is appreciated.Remember to use:
#birthcentercalltoaction and #SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter when posting anywhere online. This way, each of our individual efforts can amplify the collective whole.
June 15, 2019
Dear Birth Center Supporter,
THANK YOU for your
participation in an amazing rally #SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter!
Our vocal and visible presence
sent a clear message to leadership at PeaceHealth and to our larger community:
WE DESERVE A BIRTH CENTER! It was incredible to see our community come
out in force to insist that families in our region should have healthcare CHOICE,
that we are the decision-makers about where our healthcare MONEY goes,
and that current DATA supports our knowledge that birth center care
improves outcomes for mothers and babies. Friends of the Birth Center,
the consumer advisory board, is proud to advocate with and on behalf of this
vibrant and knowledgeable community!
Now we appreciate and invite
YOU--our living, breathing, birthing, nursing, parenting community members--to
continue stepping in to keep this fight alive! PeaceHealth would like to
wait us out; they are betting that we will lose momentum and get quiet, at which
point they can close our Nurse Midwifery Birth Center without consequences to
them. But that’s not going to happen!
If we each take some time and effort over the coming weeks, we can
continue to keep our fight in the public eye, and therefore keep PeaceHealth
accountable to us and to the public it purports to serve.
To that end, we will send a
WEEKLY CALL TO ACTION with specific requests. If our entire grassroots
community steps up to complete these tasks, we will keep our fight in the
public eye and force PeaceHealth to engage. We hope the WEEKLY CALL TO
ACTION will make it straightforward, concrete, and easy for Birth Center
supporters to participate; any effort you can make is appreciated, and the more
we can do the better!
For this week, our focus is on
keeping our fight visible to PeaceHealth administration and the media.
WEEKLY ACTION #1: Call Mary
Kingston, the PeaceHealth RiverBend CEO, and demand that she hold a formal
in-person meeting with the Friends of the Birth Center - as previous RiverBend
administrators have done - to discuss potential solutions and
alternatives to closing the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center.
PeaceHealth RiverBend
administration has refused to accommodate to our repeated meeting requests
unless we agree to only talk about the nebulous future in-hospital model.
So now we flood them with calls!
Call every day, if you like.
Here is Mary Kingston’s contact
information: (541) 222-2159
You may find it useful to
reference this article, in which Mary Kingston discusses her role and values as
a healthcare administrator: Mary Kingston RG article
Take video of yourself making your call! Post it to the Friends of the Birth Center Facebook page,Tweet with .@PeaceHealth_Ore and .@LaneCoFBC, or email it to us at lanecofbc@gmail.com.
WEEKLY ACTION #2: Write letters
to the editor to the Register-Guard.
This is crucial because, if
editors continue to receive letters, they understand that this issue is
important to their readers. Even if your letter does not get chosen for
publication, it raises the profile of our concerns, and increases the
likelihood that a letter on this topic will get published. These
letters can take many forms. Our talking points are attached; feel free
to use them as inspiration.
Here are some samples of
letters:
Here are details about letters
to the editor and the address to which they should be sent: https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/contribute-letter
And when your letter is
complete, send it to lanecofbc@gmail.com so that we can post it on our blog! The
more letters we have, the more stories we can share, and the more influence we
can gain!
WEEKLY ACTION #3: Wear your
Save the Birth Center shirt around town!
This action helps us continue
to educate more of our fellow community members. It also helps us meet
one another. When you see another Birth
Center supporter wearing a shirt, make sure to say hello. Our community
grows larger and stronger by the day, and you can help this continue! Send and post pictures of you & your
people in your t-shirts.
Thanks in advance for your
efforts! If you have concerns or are interested in getting involved with
our organization in a more substantial way, please be in touch! Everyone in our
community can help make a difference! Let’s do this!
In solidarity,
Friends of the Birth Center
--
Lane County Friends of the
Birth Center
Email: lanecofbc@gmail.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lanecofbc
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lanecofbc
Hashtag:
#SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter
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