Meanwhile, birthing patterns in Humboldt may be shifting, with more deliveries taking place at Mad River Hospital in Arcata, according to the Automated Vital Statistics System, provided by Humboldt County’s Department of Health and Human Services. In 2011, there were 628 births at St. Joseph, 463 at Mad River, 330 at Redwood Memorial, 66 at home and five elsewhere (in an ambulance, car, hotel, etc.). In 2012, births at St. Joseph dropped slightly to 595 and Mad River increased more sharply, to 540. There were also 370 births at Redwood Memorial, 52 at home, one at Jerold Phelps Community Hospital in Garberville and three elsewhere. This year, through Nov. 20, there were 1,337 births and so far Mad River has seen more of them than St. Joe’s. The totals to date are 491 births at St. Joseph, 504 at Mad River, 304 at Redwood Memorial, 34 at home, one at Jerold Phelps Community Hospital in Garberville and three elsewhere. Mad River administrators did not respond immediately to requests for comments on this shift. As the birthing picture in Humboldt continues to evolve, another key piece in the scenario is the potential loss of the laborist program at St. Joseph, which is staffed by midwives and physicians. Laborists can help ease the strain on other OB-GYN doctors by reducing on-call demands. That means more time can be spent, say, hiking in the woods or sipping a glass of wine instead of being stone cold sober and available to show up at the hospital within 30 minutes. Cherrie
Andersen says she was recruited four years ago by St. Joseph to be a hospital laborist while also seeing patients at one of the two OB-GYN groups in Eureka, the Center for Women’s Health Care. But then the OB-GYNs in her group began dropping out — retiring, leaving town. It was just her and William Koch, finally. He quit taking his own patients and went to work solely as a laborist at St. Joseph. Andersen tried to survive in private practice; that didn’t work out for financial and personal reasons. The center closed in June and Andersen continued to work as a laborist for the hospital. “Then the hospital began to make noise about not funding the laborist program,” she says. She says the program keeps getting extensions to stay open, but she doesn’t know if it will last. “I finally decided to find work elsewhere so I could have some peace of mind,” she says. At the end of the year, she’ll move to Yakima where she’ll have full-time work as a laborist. The uncertainties create an ironic feedback loop, it seems, at least in Jack Anderson’s case. “The hospital’s much more concerned about me getting additional people here than I am,” he says. “They’ve said I can’t attract a partner here. Well, that’s a nonstarter, because I don’t have a stable platform from which to do that. In a stable situation, I can attract another OB-GYN here in a New York minute.” The other doctors mentioned in this story did not respond to requests for interviews. l
northcoastjournal.com • NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, NOV. 28, 2013
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