{"id":33370,"date":"2023-06-15T17:55:24","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T17:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/doctors-address-montezuma-board-about-care-at-southwest-memorial-hospital\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:09:11","slug":"doctors-address-montezuma-board-about-care-at-southwest-memorial-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/doctors-address-montezuma-board-about-care-at-southwest-memorial-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors address Montezuma board about care at Southwest Memorial Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma
Montezuma County Hospital District board members, including Orly Lucero, left, and Robert Dobry, hosted a forum Wednesday night about status of Southwest Memorial Hospital\u2019s birthing center. (Bailey Duran\/Special to the Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

On Wednesday evening, doctors and community members, including a couple with a newborn baby, met with the Montezuma County Hospital District board to speak about their concerns over the closure of the hospital\u2019s birthing center among other issues regarding the hospital as a whole.<\/p>\n

Working and retired doctors, including obstetrician\/gynecologist Jessica Kaplan, attended the meeting.<\/p>\n

The meeting began with citizen comments after some quick business items. Retired Dr. Robert Heyl, the first to address the board members, reminded them of Southwest Health System\u2019s mission statement.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Robert Heyl suggested having a forum of doctors to help find a solution to closing the birthing center and other issues facing the hospital. (Bailey Duran\/Special to the Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe have retired physicians in the community who have worked in the hospital, and their offices that have some very deep concerns,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Heyl said he was becoming increasingly alarmed at the state of the hospital, and said the contract management firm in charge of the hospital is not meeting the needs of the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lack of retention and recruitment of health care providers and a high standard of health care in this community means access and continuity to providers that can deliver basic medical, surgical and obstetric care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Heyl also suggested creating a forum where doctors and former doctors could help bring positive change to the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thoughts were to have a forum, perhaps one day or more for the boards and stakeholders of health care in our community to develop plans for improvement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not out to rehash the problems, but to help solve the problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mary Dodd said the closing of the birthing center would lead to the death of the hospital as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI particularly am concerned that once a family birthing center, which is such an integral part of the health care in this community, closes, it will lead to the closure of the hospital,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want to work together to do everything we can to prevent that from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dodd, chairwoman of the Montezuma County Democrats, also noted that the $40 million building the taxpayers were paying for was promised to come with the birthing center.<\/p>\n

Dr. Eleanor Emery told the board about the increased risk of compromised health and morbidity rates in areas of the country that are \u201cmaternity care deserts\u201d lacking maternity care.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Eleanor Emery spoke to the board about maternity deserts. (Bailey Duran\/Special to the Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThere\u2019s extensive documentation in medical literature which shows that people who have to travel farther for medical care suffer negative health outcomes. That\u2019s particularly true in maternity care deserts, which are counties that don\u2019t have access to obstetric services,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said it\u2019s a matter of life and death.<\/p>\n

\u201cA study in Louisiana showed that women were three times as likely to die as a result of not having access to accepted services in their county. So, I want to hear that the hospital board has in the financials pros and cons of closing the birthing center and that they\u2019re factoring loss of lives in there somewhere because that\u2019s absolutely what the medical evidence shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emery also noted that losing the birthing center would make it nearly impossible to attract obstetricians\/gynecologists to the area, and would most likely result in the loss of the hospital\u2019s current doctors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine that we would be able to retain excellent doctors like Dr. Kaplan and Dr. Schmitt if we actually go through with this decision,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Retired doctors Brian and Karla Demby also addressed the board.<\/p>\n

Brian Demby spoke of the high turnover rate in the hospital, saying they have an \u201cOBGYN crisis and primary care crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Brian Demby spoke with the Montezuma County Hospital District board about retention of doctors. (Courtesy Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cYou\u2019ve lost five primary care physicians from this hospital last year,\u201d he said. \u201cBasically, this community has hundreds of patients who now don\u2019t have a physician, including myself, and there\u2019s no mechanism to absorb that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour board has not wanted to get their fingers dirty having to deal with managing the hospital,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Karla Demby spoke about the high rate of turnover for hospital CEO\u2019s. (Courtesy Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWhat happened here is a reflection of the way our medical care has been managed by outside companies, CEOs who come and go,\u201d said Karla Demby. \u201cI apologize, but I\u2019m going to be blunt. There are people who go to another job and leave us in a shambles. And Brian and I have been here for 29 years, and I\u2019ve lost track of the number of CEOs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Moriah Tarpey, a pediatrician, spoke of the many married couples working in the hospital, warning board members that they were at risk of losing multiple doctors if things don\u2019t change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision affects my practice quite directly as a pediatrician,\u201d she said. \u201cBabies are the joy of my day, and if I don\u2019t have a source of newborns coming into my practice, I don\u2019t see myself staying. My husband is an internal medicine doctor \u2026 and if I go, he goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Moriah Tarpey informed the board that closing the birthing center put them at risk of losing staff. (Courtesy Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Tarpey also said she wished they had known the birthing center was at risk, as she and other doctors would have tried to help come up with another solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have folks who are willing to help and want to help. We just weren\u2019t asked,\u201d she said. \u201cThat this was a need that was so dire that it was on the chopping block, and we weren\u2019t aware of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A mother who is in active labor can\u2019t be transported to another hospital, and Tarpey said that leaves a laboring mother in the ER without doctors and nurses who are properly trained in childbirth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are scary situations,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m going to have to come to the ER and resuscitate a baby who had no prenatal care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaplan echoed Tarpey, adding that she had a patient in labor as the meeting was underway, and helped deliver three babies the night before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose would have been three ambulances right there just last night transporting these patients to Durango,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She pointed out that it wasn\u2019t a matter of if something bad would happen, but a matter of when it would happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese emergencies mean intervening, and seconds can save lives whether it\u2019s a devastating hemorrhage or preeclampsia, eclampsia or a baby having a low heart rate,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can\u2019t wait two hours to get to another hospital to deliver that baby. This is going to be life and death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Thomason of Community Hospital Corp. in Texas, which manages the hospital, stood to apologize to Kaplan for how the situation had been handled.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Jessica Kaplan and Dr. Moriah Tarpey listen as Community Hospital Corp.\u2019s Joe Thomason responds to comments. (Bailey Duran\/Special to the Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cFirst thing I want to do is apologize to Dr. Kaplan and Dr. Schmitt and others for the execution. That\u2019s something that I own,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He apologized to Kaplan multiple times while addressing attendees.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour hospital is not in danger of closing, so I want to put that out there,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was a preventative effort to make sure the hospital doesn\u2019t get on that list.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll see that half the rural hospitals in the U.S. right now are losing money,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ll hear, unfortunately, that some people today at the hospital lost their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kent Akin, a retired doctor, said, \u201cI think the only time that I\u2019ve seen CHC willing to engage in a dialogue or to help share possible solutions is when there\u2019s a crisis. I think that\u2019s part of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another retired doctor, Doug Bagge, told Thomason he respectfully disagreed with his sentiments that the hospital is not at risk of closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have good doctors that have been neglected,\u201d he said, adding that if the \u201ccore\u201d group of doctors working at the hospital now decided to leave, they would be hard-pressed to find replacements.<\/p>\n

One member of the community, Kate Fish, said she had delivered her baby in Cortez and had experienced a high-risk pregnancy. Had she been required to travel to Durango for prenatal care, Fish said, she didn\u2019t think she would have been able to go to enough appointments for her preeclampsia to be diagnosed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI firmly believe that if we did not have our OB doctors here that I may not be here. My son may not be here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After citizen comments were completed, members of the board thanked those in attendance and said they did want to hear their comments and appreciated what they had to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a turnout like this and hearing from doctors and folks and patients is so critical,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

The Montezuma County Hospital District board<\/a> is composed of Brandon Johnson, William (Bill) Thompson, Rob Dobry, Fred M. DeWitt and Orly Lucero.<\/p>\n

The Southwest Health System Board of Directors<\/a> \u2013 Shirley Jones, Susan Hodgdon, Sean Killoy and Dan Valverde \u2013 will host a meeting at Southwest Memorial Hospital\u2019s ambulance bay on Thursday, June 15 at 6 p.m. During that time, citizens may address the board.<\/p>\n

Those who wish to attend can RSVP by emailing lallen@swhealth.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doctors alarmed by move to close birthing center, board\u2019s and management company\u2019s decisions <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,209,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-33370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-hospital-and-clinic","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82170,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33370\/revisions\/82170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33370"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}