Lebanon, N.H.-based Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital will shutter its maternity ward July 15, transitioning those services to Lebanon-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center as part of a planned merger, according to the Valley News.
Alice Peck hospital will still offer prenatal and postnatal services; however, all births will take place at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. In preparation for the transition, Dartmouth-Hitchcock will add three beds to its birthing unit.
"We are not getting out of the obstetrics business," Alice Peck hospital CEO Sue Mooney, MD, said, according to the report. "It's that inpatient piece that we will be transferring and doing up at Dartmouth."
The CEOs of Dartmouth and Alice Peck hospitals cited declining birthrates in New Hampshire and low reimbursement rates for obstetric services as reasons for discontinuing the services at Alice Peck.
As part of the transition and closure, 12 employees will be laid off. Dr. Mooney said those employees will receive assistance with finding a new position at Alice Peck hospital or within Dartmouth-Hitchcock.