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The Springfield hospital's delivery unit is seeking new doctors as Oregon Medical Group prepares to end its OB-GYN services on Nov. 26.
McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center is exploring options for baby-delivery care as Oregon Medical Group ends its obstetrics and gynecology care.
Oregon Medical Group currently provides OB-GYN services to McKenzie-Willamette. Oregon Medical Group announced in an email to patients Monday, July 14, that it will close its OB-GYN department, because many of its doctors left to go elsewhere.
Oregon Medical Group is owned by Optum, a division of UnitedHealth Group.
An Optum spokesperson told Lookout Eugene-Springfield on Monday: “We are partnering with Women’s Care and McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center to ensure seamless transitions of care for all our OB-GYN patients receiving care at these facilities.”
The department will shut its doors Nov. 26, according to the group’s website.
McKenzie-Willamette does not directly employ doctors with obstetrics credentials, hospital spokesperson Jana Waterman said. Rather, the hospital contracts with Oregon Medical Group for doctors who specialize in caring for people in labor and delivering babies.
“We are currently in discussions with other OBs in the area,” Waterman said. “We want to maintain the delivery service and unit for McKenzie-Willamette. It’s vitally important to us.
“There’s local companies and other OBs that are interested in delivering and possibly joining McKenzie. So it’s way too early to say anything other than we’re exploring those options and trying to make it work,” she said.
The Oregon Medical Group doctors who deliver babies at McKenzie-Willamette are contracted to continue doing so until Nov. 2. Waterman said that by then another group of OB specialists should be in place.
PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend is the only other hospital-based option for childbirth in the Eugene-Springfield area.
The cuts to OB-GYN services is the latest hit to a strained health care system locally, where patients face soaring emergency room wait times and long delays to establish primary care.
