Mesa View Regional Hospital is seeking to discontinue obstetric services in response to the changing medical needs of Mesquite residents.
“With the approval of the hospital’s Board of Trustees, the medical staff and hospital leadership, we will seek the support of the Mesquite City Council to have the flexibility in the care offered to members of the Mesquite community,” said Robert H. Fuller, Business Development Director for the Mesquite hospital. “A closure date has not been set.”
“For over a decade, the populations over the age of 65 and women of childbearing age have diverged significantly,” Fuller explained. Retirement-age residents have increased while the number of women in their childbearing years has decreased. “Reflecting this shift is a decline in babies born at Mesa View from a high of 236 in 2008 to a projected all-time low of 111 deliveries this year,” he added.
“We understand that these changes may create concern for patients who were planning to deliver at Mesa View, and we will assist them with transitioning their care to other facilities if they are scheduled to deliver after OB services have ended. We will continue to be equipped to handle obstetric services on an emergency basis,” he said.
“Replacing the under-utilized OB program will allow our hospital to redirect resources to services that meet the changing needs of our community, such as: orthopedics, oncology and cardiology. In fact, over the past two years we’ve already opened two urgent care clinics, expanded the cardiology department, initiated urology services and recruited four new physicians and three new mid-levels (PA’s and Nurse Practitioners), to the Mesquite community,” he said.