Exploring Services Across Our Community
Women & Children

Why This Program?

There is a national shortage of OB/GYN physicians. This makes recruitment and retention of physicians challenging. Samaritan currently has five openings for OB/GYN physicians. Some of the openings have been posted for longer than 12 months. Because of this, Samaritan must contract with temporary physicians and Labor & Delivery nurses to provide the necessary coverage. Temporary coverage and staffing are very expensive.

Samaritan is exploring ways to:

  • Improve patient access to outpatient services.
  • Expand the services offered.
  • Improve clinician recruitment.
  • Reduce the burden of being on call for our clinicians.
  • Improve the quality of care.
  • Pool our limited resources.
  • Reduce our reliance on temporary staffing.

Consolidation of Labor & Delivery services would optimize use of hospital inpatient facilities. It would reduce the need to staff underutilized facilities 24/7 and our physicians would not need to be on call so often. Proposed enhancements would improve access to outpatient OB/GYN services, increase teamwork among clinicians and staff and make Samaritan’s Women & Children’s program more resilient.

What’s Being Explored?

Samaritan clinicians, leaders and analysts are exploring all aspects of the Women & Children’s clinical program, including:

  • Maintaining all current outpatient OB/GYN and pediatric clinics.
  • Regionalizing OB/GYN groups in the Willamette Valley and on the Central Oregon coast.
  • Streamlining delivery services and inpatient pediatric support by consolidating these services from five hospitals to three.
  • Increasing outpatient gynecologic surgery at all hospitals.
  • Reducing the on-call burden and need for temporary staffing.
  • Recruiting one more OB/GYN physician for the coast.
  • Adding an outpatient Maternal & Fetal Medicine program focused on care during high-risk pregnancies.

2024 Data & Demographics

Clinical Statistics

  • 43,000 clinic visits.
  • 1,750 surgical cases.
  • 1,849 deliveries across Samaritan’s five hospitals:
    • Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center: 972
    • Samaritan Albany General Hospital: 405
    • Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital: 226
    • Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital: 127
    • Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital: 119
  • 78% of deliveries in our service area occurred at Samaritan hospitals. 
  • Residents who receive care out of the area do so due to high-risk pregnancy/birth circumstances or personal preference.
  • Number of days with no deliveries in 2024:
    • Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital: 260 days.
    • Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital: 256 days.
    • Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital: 193 days.
    • Samaritan Albany General Hospital: 122 days.
    • Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center: 25 days.

In total, there were 856 hospital days, when mandatory staffing was required despite no deliveries. This resulted in an estimated cost of $10 million. Hospitals are not reimbursed for these costs. The direct loss on obstetric services totaled $7.8 million, accounting for all deliveries at Samaritan hospitals.

Staffing

  • Even when there are no patients, each birth center must meet a mandatory staffing obligation 24 hours a day, every day of the year and have active availability of numerous wrap-around service capabilities. 
  • To ensure coverage at all times, many of our providers are routinely on call one of every two or three days. 
  • Call burden negatively impacts recruitment and retention. By creating regional groups, the call burden would be significantly reduced.
  • 20 OB/GYN providers are currently employed.
  • Additional positions are under recruitment.

Geographical Considerations

East Linn County

  • Two-thirds of residents had their babies delivered outside of Lebanon. For those who delivered elsewhere:
  • 24% delivered at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.
  • 20% delivered at Samaritan Albany General Hospital.
  • The drive from Lebanon to Corvallis or Albany ranges from 14 to 21 miles, approximately 25 to 35 minutes.

North Lincoln County

  • 77% of residents (69 people) who had a baby chose to deliver at Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital.
  • The distance from North Lincoln to Newport is 28 miles. Travel times range from 45 to 90 minutes depending on conditions.

All Samaritan birth centers meet quality standards for maternal morbidity/mortality and obstetric services. Consolidating deliveries at three hospitals is projected to maintain or enhance these outcomes. Consolidation would allow greater consistency, concentrated expertise and decreased dependence on temporary staff.

This approach will not create maternity care deserts—U.S. counties lacking maternity resources— because outpatient and prenatal services would remain at all current locations.

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