Whitman Hospital Birth Unit

| Mar 07, 20240

This has been a challenging few weeks for our community, our hospital and our practice. In light of the recent turmoil and announcement of closure of the Whitman Hospital Family Birth Unit, we felt that you should hear from us directly. You have trusted us to care for you, to protect you and to help bring your children into the world, and we want you to know that we are dedicated to continue to do so. For a number of reasons, many of which have been presented untruthfully or incompletely, the decision was made to end the relationship we have had with you for generations. This step was taken without our knowledge or consent. While we actively work to reverse that decision, please know that we will continue dedicate ourselves to your care. It has been our honor and joy to deliver babies at Whitman Hospital, and we have always done so with a dedication to compassion, quality, justice and service to the women and children in our hands.

It has been widely reported that the obstetrics service at Whitman Hospital had been operating despite certain safety concerns and negative outcomes. We would like to state clearly and unequivocally that this information is false. While the practice of rural obstetrics faces a number of unique challenges, we are dedicated to continuously improving the skills and capabilities of our nurses, physicians and hospital staff in order to be able to provide excellent care here in our own community. We enjoy the ability to focus more individual time and attention on each patient and provide a more tailored birth experience, which our patients consistently highlight when they deliver their babies at Whitman Hospital. We continue to bring passionate and dedicated new providers to our clinic, and have established new partnerships with community midwives to broaden our skills and create an environment that is safe, natural and holistic. We routinely and voluntarily seek review and oversight from outside providers to ensure that we provide you with a safe place to bring your child into the world. We are proud of our wonderful and dynamic nurses, our passionate providers, our strong mothers and our beautiful babies. We stand by our outcomes and the quality of our care, and we are dedicated to helping you grow your family and your community with the excellent care that you deserve.

The landscape of women’s health continues to change nationwide, and here at home we have felt that as well. Recently, abortion services have taken a prominent position in the discussion. On this, we ask for your trust. Inside an exam room, this is always a difficult and delicate issue for a doctor and patient to take on. However, the privilege of navigating such situations with our patients is not one that we ever take lightly, and we feel strongly that we have a responsibility to continue to be there for every woman who comes to our door, regardless of their age, color, creed, status or circumstance. Our response to the state’s mandates has been an ongoing topic of conversation for many months, and we believe that we as providers have presented the hospital and community with multiple options to navigate this situation while still providing quality obstetric care. Trust that we will never forget the importance of every life in our care. Trust that we will do our best when these situations arise to carefully weigh the health and values of the person and the community that we serve.

In the difficult few weeks since the hospital board’s decision was made we have heard your loud and passionate voices supporting our hospital, our nurses and our providers. Please continue to make your voices heard to our hospital board and administration, and to our community and state leaders. We will continue to fight to keep this service here in our community and to serve you to the best of our skill and ability, now and for future generations.

Yours truly,

The Whitman

Medical Group

obstetrics physicians:

Dr. Peter Edminster,

Dr. Margaret Leland,

Dr. Zachary Milcawich,

Dr. Mark Parsons