Quick Take
More than a dozen nurses at Watsonville Community Hospital rallied Monday afternoon against an ongoing closure at the facility’s NICU. Earlier this month, hospital leadership confirmed to Lookout that it closed the unit in mid-July due to a nursing shortage in the labor and delivery unit.
More than a dozen current and retired nurses at Watsonville Community Hospital rallied Monday afternoon against an ongoing closure at the facility’s intensive care nursery.
In mid-July, the hospital temporarily closed the unit amid a nursing shortage in its labor and delivery unit. Interim CEO Tim Moran told Lookout last month that the unit was already short-staffed before he replaced former CEO Stephen Gray.
The intensive care nursery functions as the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. NICUs are ranked by level of care, similar to trauma centers.
Watsonville operates as a Level II unit, providing intermediate care to babies born at 32 weeks old or later who may have mild breathing and feeding problems, and stabilizing more premature infants (born before 32 weeks) before transferring them to a higher-level hospital.
Interim chief nursing officer Susan Casperson reminded the hospital’s governing board at a meeting last week that the facility had recruited and hired five nurses for the labor and delivery unit, but two lacked proper certification. She added that another nurse slated to begin their new hire orientation this week was involved in a car accident, leaving only two new hires – one for each shift.
“It’s not really the bench that we were trying to grow,” Casperson said last week. “That being said, we’re not able to open the NICU at this time in a safe manner.”
Moran previously told Lookout that the few nurses working in the intensive care nursery have shifted over to labor and delivery for the time being to support that unit.
In mid-September, the labor and delivery unit will get additional support from traveler nurses, according to Casperson. But she added that she doesn’t see a way to reopen the unit before those reinforcements arrive.
“If you want to stabilize, we need to stabilize now,” WCH registered nurse and union representative Roseann Farris said during Monday’s rally. “It’s not a question of if you want to – we need to … it’s now, not, ‘Let’s wait another month.’”
Farris told the crowd Monday that the temporary closure of the unit is a “slippery slope, one that can lead to a decision that creates gaps in care for our most vulnerable,” and even potentially cause maternal deserts (areas that lack maternal health care).
“What affects us in South County affects the whole county,” she said.
The hospital accounts for roughly 31% of babies born in Santa Cruz County, just ahead of Dominican Hospital’s 29%. A large portion of Watsonville Community Hospital’s birthing mothers are Latina, Spanish-speaking, with low-to-moderate incomes, based in Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley.
The hospital averages about 60 deliveries per month. In July, there were 70 deliveries, according to a recent hospital report.
Moran told Lookout that if there are babies experiencing health issues, the hospital has transfer arrangements with nearby hospitals, including Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz and Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, which is 23 miles south of Watsonville.
More critical cases can also be transferred to the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University in Palo Alto as part of an ongoing partnership between the two facilities.
Time is of the essence in any healthcare crisis, Farris said, and it’s the same case for babies and their mothers. She added that it’s important to not put patients at risk due to a lack of services.
However, the unit continues to face additional challenges as several of its nurses – and a NICU nurse — are out sick with COVID-19, Casperson said. She added that the hospital has already contacted the county’s public health agency about the outbreak. The hospital has implemented a two-week masking protocol that is mandatory for all clinical areas interacting with patients.
There are at least nine COVID cases, according to Moran. He added that the outbreak has affected only the labor and delivery unit, which continues to operate as usual.
Moran said he believes the unit will be OK, but because of the “fragile nature” of the hospital’s staffing, having a handful of people out sick is a bit uncomfortable.
The main priority for Moran is to ensure that the hospital continues to provide the safest level of care for the women coming to the facility to give birth as his team works to stabilize the staffing issue.
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