Ouachita County Medical Center in Camden, Ark., has closed its labor and delivery unit, CEO Glenda Harper confirmed in a phone call with Becker’s.
“Since August, when I came [in as CEO], it was one of a number of units that the board and the leadership group were talking about closing,” Ms. Harper said. “I asked to have the OB unit remain open and allow me to operate it to see if it could be profitable, only to find that it, in fact, can’t be. We do so few deliveries, and with the cut in reimbursement, it’s just not feasible.”
The medical center reported only 119 deliveries for 2025. “We have two physicians, and they deliver equal numbers based on the records,” Ms. Harper said.
She added that retaining OB nurses had become a challenge. “That added to the already difficult situation we had based on the numbers,” she said.
The unit closed Jan. 9. Ms. Harper said affected employees were offered other positions in the hospital.
“They knew and had been anticipating this closure for some time,” she said. “All of them were offered positions in the hospital, with the exception of one who had recently finished an educational advancement. She had already found placement as an APRN.”
“There are one or two of them who are talking about possible retirement versus taking the positions they’ve been offered, but the rest have gone either to the med-surg unit, day surgery or the emergency department,” she added.
Ouachita County Medical Center has about 205 employees total. It is the seventh hospital in Arkansas to close its labor and delivery unit since 2020, and the closest hospitals with such units are in El Dorado, a roughly 40-minute drive, and Arkadelphia, roughly an hour away, Arkansas Advocate reported Jan. 9.
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