{"id":58866,"date":"2025-07-03T14:44:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T21:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/?page_id=58866"},"modified":"2025-08-27T15:17:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T22:17:03","slug":"exploring-services-women-children","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/about-samaritan\/our-organization\/sustainable-health-care\/exploring-services-women-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Services: Women & Children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\t\t
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Sustainable Services Across Our Community
Women & Children<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n
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Why This Program?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is a national shortage of OB\/GYN physicians. This makes recruitment and retention of physicians challenging. Samaritan currently has five openings for OB\/GYN physicians. Some of the openings have been posted for longer than 12 months. Because of this, Samaritan must contract with temporary physicians and Labor & Delivery nurses to provide the necessary coverage. Temporary coverage and staffing are very expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samaritan is exploring ways to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Improve patient access to outpatient services.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Expand the services offered.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Improve clinician recruitment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Reduce the burden of being on call for our clinicians.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Improve the quality of care.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Pool our limited resources.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Reduce our reliance on temporary staffing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

    \n\t\t
    \n\n

    The Way Forward<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Deliveries will continue at all five Samaritan hospitals. These services will be supported within available staffing, with a strong focus on reducing reliance on temporary agency providers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      • Samaritan will establish a systemwide OB\/GYN practice to enhance collaboration and continuity of care, so that services are coordinated seamlessly across our hospitals and providers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
          \n
        • Our care teams will be encouraged and supported in continued innovation to sustain delivery services across the region, including partnering with community resources and cross-training team members for broader support roles where appropriate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
            \n
          • Progress will be monitored quarterly, with reassessment planned for summer\/fall 2026 to ensure services remain viable and responsive to community needs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n
            \n\t\t
            \n\n

            2024 Data & Demographics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

            Clinical Statistics<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
              \n
            • 43,000 clinic visits.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • 1,750 surgical cases.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • 1,849 deliveries across Samaritan\u2019s five hospitals:\n
                \n
              • Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center: 972<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • Samaritan Albany General Hospital: 405<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital: 226<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital: 127<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital: 119<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • 78% of deliveries in our service area occurred at Samaritan hospitals. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • Residents who receive care out of the area do so due to high-risk pregnancy\/birth circumstances or personal preference.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • Number of days with no deliveries in 2024:<\/strong>\n
                  \n
                • Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital: 260 days.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                • Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital: 256 days.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                • Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital: 193 days.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                • Samaritan Albany General Hospital: 122 days.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                • Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center: 25 days.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

                  In total, there were 856 hospital days, when mandatory staffing was required despite no deliveries. This resulted in an estimated cost of $10 million. Hospitals are not reimbursed for these costs. The direct loss on obstetric services totaled $7.8 million, accounting for all deliveries at Samaritan hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Staffing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
                    \n
                  • Even when there are no patients, each birth center must meet a mandatory staffing obligation 24 hours a day, every day of the year and have active availability of numerous wrap-around service capabilities. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
                      \n
                    • To ensure coverage at all times, many of our providers are routinely on call one of every two or three days. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
                    • Call burden negatively impacts recruitment and retention. By creating regional groups, the call burden would be significantly reduced.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
                        \n
                      • 20 OB\/GYN providers are currently employed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                      • Additional positions are under recruitment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n
                        \n\t\t
                        \n\n

                        Geographical Considerations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

                        East Linn County<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
                          \n
                        • Two-thirds of residents had their babies delivered outside of Lebanon. For those who delivered elsewhere:<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                        • 24% delivered at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                        • 20% delivered at Samaritan Albany General Hospital.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                        • The drive from Lebanon to Corvallis or Albany ranges from 14 to 21 miles, approximately 25 to 35 minutes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

                          North Lincoln County<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
                            \n
                          • 77% of residents (69 people) who had a baby chose to deliver at Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                          • The distance from North Lincoln to Newport is 28 miles. Travel times range from 45 to 90 minutes depending on conditions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"parent":58845,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_shs_workflow_notes":"","_shs_exclude_from_navigation":true,"_shs_promote_article_on_blogs":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-58866","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/58866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/58866\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/58845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}