The OB-GYN office at Soin Medical Center will remain open for outpatient visits. All deliveries and cesarean sections will take place at the other two locations.
According to Kettering Health, all services will remain intact at the main, Washington Twp. and Hamilton locations.
“Our team remains committed to providing the high-quality, compassionate care you have come to expect,” the email reads.
All birthing appointments will be rescheduled, the company email said.
The change effectively ends Kettering Health’s midwifery program, which existed only at Soin Medical Center as an offered OB service.
Kettering Health will continue to have midwifes who see patients in an outpatient setting at other locations, according to the hospital system. but midwives will no longer deliver babies at any Kettering Health facility.
Area doulas became aware of the pending changes at Soin last week when a post on the Kettering Health Midwives Facebook page stated the page was paused for 26 hours due to the health network’s decision “to reevaluate the midwifery care within the network” specifically at Soin Medical Center.
Kelsey Fitzpatrick of Tipp City said she has been a patient at Soin for three years, and had two children delivered there by midwives during that time.
After receiving notice today about Soin, she said she and her family will no longer be using Kettering Health for their health care needs.
“I was talking to my husband. We will be changing to Premier Health through Miami Valley after this,” Fitzpatrick said.
According to the statement from Kettering Health regarding changes at Soin, employment opportunities are available within the system for anyone impacted.
“Our goal is that all impacted employees continue to be part of the Kettering Health team,” the statement reads.
Soin Medical Center was the only Greene County location to offer birthing services.
Last month, Kettering Health announced it no longer planned to close Greene Memorial Hospital in Xenia, and instead will invest $10 million for renovation and modernization, and build a $25 million outpatient health center on Progress Drive across from the YMCA.
Neither project involves birthing services.
According to data from the Ohio Department of Health, the number of births in Greene County has declined each year since 2015. there were 1,891 births in 2015 compared to 1,630 in 2021.
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