RNs at Research Medical Center say shutdowns for labor and delivery and neonatal intensive care will hurt patients

Nurses at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, are speaking out against the planned end of their hospital’s labor and delivery, neonatal intensive, and obstetrics emergency care services. Recently announced by HCA, nurses say these service shutdowns will leave patients with fewer options for essential health care for new parents and babies.

In addition to the specialized care provided in labor and delivery and a level three neonatal intensive care unit that provides critical care, impacted services will include emergency obstetrics care, gynecological consults, emergency cesarean sections, and outpatient clinics for babies. Nurses at Research Medical Center are asking HCA to cancel their plans to shut down these services.

“This is a devastating blow to our community,” said Jessica Wheat, RN in labor and delivery/postpartum unit at Research Medical Center and nurse of eight years. “Shutting these services down at our hospital will leave vulnerable patients with fewer options for all kinds of care essential to pregnancy, birth, and postpartum needs. This does not mean babies won’t be born at our hospital any more. It just means they will be born in the emergency room or on the road as patients are forced to travel to another hospital that still provides these services.”

“We are an essential hospital in a part of our city that’s already underserved in so many ways,” said Linda Tankersly, a 40-year employee and 38-year nurse working in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). “The health care workers on these units save lives on a regular basis. This shutdown takes these vital medical services away from vulnerable patients.”

National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) represents roughly 1,000 nurses in the Kansas City area at Research Medical Center and Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, Kansas.

National Nurses Organizing Committee is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with nearly 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates also include California Nurses Association, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.