Top Senate Democrat backs updates to hospital closure rules as Leominster maternity unit plans to shutter

The top Senate Democrat on health care financing expressed support Tuesday for changing the rules around state-licensed hospital closures and offered to reach out to the head of UMass Memorial Health Care to discuss the closure of a birthing center in Leominster.

More than 40 hospitals or health care units have closed in Massachusetts since 2009, according to the largest nurses union in the state. State law is “failing to meet this moment of crisis” for patients and caregivers, the Massachusetts Nurses Association said, which is backing a bill on Beacon Hill that would put more rules in place for hospitals looking to shut their doors.

Sen. Cindy Friedman, the Senate chair of the Health Care Financing Committee, said she thinks it is “very important and reasonable” to understand what was behind the decision to close the Leominster birthing center, which is run by the UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital.

And Friedman said she supports changing the way the state handles determination of need, or the laws and regulations governing substantial changes in services at health care facilities. The Arlington Democrat said she will look at the bills backed by the nurses association “to see if they actually will do what we want them to do.”

“It is definitely clear that we need to fix this,” Friedman told the Herald after a multi-hour hearing at the State House. “We have to fix it because I don’t believe that our determination of need process reflects what’s happening in healthcare today, and we need to update it.”

UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital announced last month it planned to close its maternity unit in Leominster on Sept. 22 because of “industry-wide workforce challenges” that have made it difficult to fully staff the ward, hospital president Steve Roach said.

Roach said UMass provided notice to the Department of Public Health and “all appropriate parties” as required under state law. Patients can continue to receive obstetrics care and deliver within the UMass Memorial Health Center at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.

“This was an especially difficult decision for our health system, as our compassionate caregivers have helped thousands of parents and families navigate the birthing journey and welcome new loved ones into their lives for so many decades,” Roach said in a statement.

The decision to close the birthing center has sparked an outcry from local lawmakers, community members, and nurses who work at the hospital.

Amy Gagnon has worked as a nurse at the birthing center in Leominster for more than 12 years and said she is “outraged” by the plan to close an essential service in the area. Over the past 10 years, 10 maternity units have closed in Massachusetts, she said.

“This closure, if allowed to go through, will have a devastating impact on the families in my community, particularly economically disadvantaged residents who lack the ability to travel long distances to receive care in Worcester,” she told lawmakers Tuesday. “It could mean mothers will be delivering in our already busy emergency room, which does not have the appropriate staff, skills, or resources to provide the care these mothers and babies need.

The Massachusetts Nurses Association wants lawmakers to advance legislation from Sen. Julian Cyr and Rep. Ed Coppinger that would extend from six months to one year the official notice period Department of Public Health licensed hospitals need to give the state before a closure or discontinuation of health services.

The additional notice time gives communities more time to weigh in on potential closures and the effects it would have on healthcare service in a municipality, said Rep. Jonathan Zlotnik, a Democrat from Gardner.

Six months is not enough time for communities to seek out state resources, organize, make counterarguments, gather data, or prepare for other outcomes, he said.

“That’s why this bill is so important, because, again, anyone who’s been through this knows how critical that time is in terms of addressing these issues and trying to save these services in our community,” he said.

A Department of Public Health spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The proposal directs the attorney general to seek an injunction to keep “essential health service[s]” running during the notice period. It would also require hospitals proposing a closure or discontinuation of services to provide “evidence of having given notice” to affected municipalities, according to the bill text.

The bill also bars hospitals from applying for a license or expanding for three years from when health services are discontinued or a facility is closed. And the legislation prohibits closure of beds, units or facilities during a declared state of emergency pertaining to health care like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Peter McConarty, a family doctor who has worked in Fitchburg for 38 years, including at the UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital, said the decision to close the maternity ward in Leominster with only four months’ notice is “inhumane, at best.”

“That’s less than the duration of a pregnancy,” he told lawmakers. “I mean, my goodness, that means that people in the middle of their pregnancies are going to be trying to figure out where they’re going to go to safely have their baby.”