IRONWOOD, Mich. (WZMQ) – Less than two years after Aspirus Health shut down its Ontonagon emergency room and its Keweenaw OB-GYN facility, the company is now cutting back in its Ironwood Hospital, ending labor and delivery care by December 31, 2025.
“I think we all heard rumors and thought that it would be a possibility, but I don’t think we knew it was actually going to happen at least this quickly,” said Sarah Trudgeon, RN at Aspirus Ironwood and MNA president.
Soon, the need for this care could mean a trip to Wisconsin, bringing risks both physically and financially.
“We are the only hospital within 45 minutes of two different hospitals in Wisconsin,” said Trudgeon. “There’s a lot of people that can travel and will travel, but then there’s some that either rely on public transportation or friends or family. They might have Michigan insurance, and it would be out of pocket to go to Wisconsin, even though it’s closer than traveling to somewhere else in Michigan.”
According to a release from the hospital, despite years of recruiting, Aspirus has been unable to secure a full maternal care team in Ironwood. This is the same reported reason for the closure of the Keweenaw facility.
“We only had one provider and a lot of locums and traveling doctors coming in to help fill all the holes,” explained Trudgeon, “and we knew that couldn’t go on forever.”
As staff looks to adjust, emergency room space will be utilized for any labor and delivery, leaving ER staff to cover regular childbirth. The birthing process typically calls for two nurses to be available if not more, and with low staffing, a single delivery could lead to set backs in other emergency departments.
“For now, ER staff being responsible for doing things that we’ve never really been trained on is a big thing,” said Trudgeon. “If they’re requiring an ER to be covering that, you would hope that we would get more staff, so it won’t take the two ER nurses and leave the other 10 or 11 beds.”
Over the next 3 months, Ironwood ER staff will undergo training to fill as much of the coming gap as possible. At this time, the hospital says its emergency department and facilities remain equipped to handle any urgent labor and delivery needs that arise, and will continue its prenatal and postnatal care for local families.
