The new unit would open in 2020 and accommodate 1,600 annual births, just under one-fifth of the 8,500 annual birth’s at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, which sits one block away from Rhode Island Hospital.
Lifespan said the new unit is intended to provide better care for women at a lower cost by offering all of their care in one hospital network, according to the report.
“The Lifespan approach is really more about linking women’s care in pregnancy with a lifetime approach … before pregnancy, during pregnancy and after pregnancy,” said Margaret Miller, MD, chief of women’s services at Rhode Island Hospital and director of Lifespan’s Women’s Medicine Collaborative, according to the report. “This is the next logical step.”
However, health policy experts said the plan would also function as a competitive move to steal market share from Women & Infants Hospital. Providence-based Care New England, of which Women & Infants is a part, recently stopped delivering babies at Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket to funnel patients to Women & Infants and its affiliate, Kent Hospital in Warwick, R.I.
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