Transitioning to Sutter Roseville Medical Center
Auburn, Calif.- Building on Sutter’s tradition of quality maternity care in Placer County, the Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region Board of Directors announced today the decision to close the Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital Family Birthing Center and provide all inpatient labor and delivery services at Sutter Roseville Medical Center. The Auburn facility will continue deliveries until a safe patient-focused closure plan is complete.Â
This plan allows Sutter Health to continue to provide stable, high-quality, safe care for expectant and new mothers and their babies throughout South Placer County and neighboring cities. Sutter Roseville Medical Center, located off of Interstate 80 just 20 miles from Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital, is staffed by qualified nurses and doctors who deliver nearly 3,000 babies annually. It is backed by a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, which is completely prepared to care for infants born premature or needing advanced levels of care.
The board’s decision is based on a number of factors, including a near-constant turnover of obstetricians in Auburn over the past decade, an aging population and the fact that many pregnant women are choosing to deliver outside of the community — all of which has resulted in fewer babies being born at the hospital. Today Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital’s Family Birthing Center delivers an average of one newborn a day.
Richard Kramer, a member of the Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region Board of Directors said, ‘Our priority is to provide Auburn-area women with the best care for themselves and their babies. We believe that this alternative will provide much improved stability, enhance continuity in patient-physician relationships and give the highest quality care to our patients.’
The provision of maternity services has been unpredictable as the community has had 11 different obstetricians over an 11-year period. The physicians, commonly called OB-GYNs, have departed for a variety of reasons, including retirement and relocation, but the near-constant turnover has not fostered long-term relationships between physicians and patients.
The plan ensures that Sutter-aligned physicians will continue to provide quality prenatal services and follow-up care in Auburn and, in doing so, be able to develop long-term, stable relationships with their patients.
‘Auburn’s Family Birthing Center holds a special place in the hearts of many area residents, but our community demographics are changing and we have less of a need for labor and delivery services, and more of a need for other types of health care services,’ said Mitch Hanna, Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital Chief Executive Officer. ‘This plan will allow us to provide expectant mothers with the prenatal and post-maternity care they require here in Auburn, while the hospital grows those services that are most needed in our community.’ Over the last 10 years Sutter has invested nearly $40 million in the Auburn community.
Many health systems across California have taken a more regional approach to birthing services, and don’t provide it at every hospital. In Northern California, about 50 hospitals do not offer inpatient obstetrical services. Here in Placer County, Kaiser Permanente in Roseville was open for 10 years before adding a birthing center two years ago and closing its inpatient obstetrical unit in its Sacramento hospital on Morse Avenue.
Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital is an 80-bed general acute care hospital serving Auburn and its surrounding communities for 45 years. Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital is affiliated with Sutter Health, a not-for-profit, community-based health system located throughout Northern California.
