‘There are going to be deaths:’ Toppenish residents raise concerns about maternity center closure

TOPPENISH – The closure of Astria Toppenish Hospital’s Family Maternity Center will lead to more maternal and infant deaths in the Lower Yakima Valley, speakers at a town hall meeting said Tuesday.

The maternity center closed Dec. 23, with Astria Health administrators citing financial issues and difficulties with recruitment. A news release from Astria Health said a 50% decrease in births in Toppenish over the last five years and a $3.2 million loss in 2022 made keeping the center open unsustainable.

The closure drew concerns from community members and health care providers, who organized the town hall meeting, the first of two. About 40 doctors, nurses, midwives, mothers and other community members attended.

They spoke about the negative effects the closure would have on expectant mothers in the area, many of whom will likely have to drive roughly a half-hour to either Astria Sunnyside Hospital or Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital in Yakima to give birth.

The Toppenish hospital had fewer than 400 deliveries in 2022. A reduction of Medicaid reimbursement from 150% to 100% in July also contributed to the decision, hospital officials said.

Julia Barcott, an intensive care unit nurse at Astria Toppenish, was disappointed in the decision to shut down the maternity center. She and many of her colleagues were confused by the closure being framed as a financial necessity since Astria renewed its contract with Toppenish nurses months before, in August, granting them 21% to 34% raises.

Barcott also said she was fearful for the community members who continue to show up at Toppenish needing obstetric services.

“We’re very fearful about what’s going to happen with all these women,” Barcott said. “We had over 50 labors that were scheduled for January … We’ve also had a patient that came and presented in labor that wanted to deliver in Toppenish. When she was told she’d have to go to Sunnyside, she refused and left. We don’t know where she went.”

Dr. Patricia Hernandez, an OB/GYN from Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic who contracted for Astria Toppenish, said multiple generations of Yakima Valley residents have been born at the maternity center. She’s been working in the area since the 1990s.

“I recently delivered a baby and the mother tells me ‘You delivered me and you also delivered my husband,’ ” Hernandez said. “More than anything, I’m in shock. Like everyone else … There are going to be deaths and there are also going to be morbidities … I can count on both hands at least 10 times when a child was saved because we were there.”

Christy Trotter, chief executive officer for Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, said she was shocked when she’d heard about the center closing. She said the organization will do everything it can to provide good care to women in the community.

“I recognize it is going to be a challenge for many women to go to Yakima or Sunnyside,” she said. “If there was a solution, we want to be a part of that.”

In October 2021, before Trotter’s tenure as CEO, the Farm Workers Clinic announced it would pull its OB/GYNs and pediatricians from the maternity center, moving most deliveries to Memorial’s Family Birthplace in Yakima.

In March 2022, under a renewed partnership, the Farm Workers Clinic returned its health care providers to the Toppenish maternity center, where they worked until its December closing. A Farm Workers Clinic spokesperson said after the closure announcement in December that no changes were planned to providers working at the Toppenish maternity center.

In one of the many moments that drew tears from audience members Tuesday, Elpidia Saavedra, Toppenish’s mayor, shared her own experience giving birth at the maternity center.

“Every single one of us has to care about the most vulnerable, marginalized, poorest communities, and Toppenish is one of those,” Saavedra said. “These are our babies, Toppenish babies. I’m one of those babies. Women could lose their lives. I was one of those women. Ten years ago I had an ectopic pregnancy that ruptured. The OB doctor that saved my life is sitting in this room today.”

Saavedra said she was told by her doctor that if she had lived 5 minutes farther away, she would not have survived the complication.

She acknowledged that the Toppenish City Council has no authority over Astria and its decisions. She urged community members to continue voicing their concerns and to write to their elected representatives, including Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.

A second town hall meeting is planned for 7 p.m. Monday at Toppenish City Hall, 21 W. First Ave.