Aurora official feels the heat over birthing center decision

Rotary Club members urge Aurora to continue providing the service in Burlington

By Ed Nadolski

Editor in Chief

Vicki Lewis, president of Aurora Health Care’s hospitals in Burlington and Elkhorn, stood before members of the Burlington Rotary Club Monday and took the heat for the health care provider’s recent decision to stop delivering babies at the Burlington hospital as of July 1.

That meeting, and a similar appearance before the Burlington Kiwanis Club later Monday, were the first in what Lewis said will be a series of “town hall” meetings to discuss Aurora’s decision and seek input from the community.

Lewis got plenty of that from Rotary Club members.

“This is just wrong and it will not be tolerated,” David Lynch, a prominent local businessman, told Lewis.

Lynch, who was a member of the hospital’s community board when Aurora purchased Memorial Hospital and Burlington Clinic in the 1990s, called Lewis a hero for listening to the criticism of Aurora’s decision, but urged her to take his message back to the corporate decision makers and ask them to reconsider the negative impact on Burlington.

For club member John Schultz, the issue is a matter of trust.

He said many in the community don’t believe Aurora has Burlington’s best interest at heart. The greatest fear, he said, is that Aurora will discontinue other services here based on what’s best for its bottom line rather than the community’s well being.

Lewis assured Schultz that Aurora is committed to providing a wide variety of services in Burlington – noting it has invested $5 million into local facilities in recent years – but admitted she didn’t have crystal ball into the future.

She said her goal is to take the community’s input and use it to maximize depth and scope of services that remain here.

“There’s a lot of opportunity to get upset and be divisive,” she said, urging club members to instead seek positive outcomes for the local hospital.

“If I could personally change the decision I would,” she added.

The decision

Local Aurora employees learned in late November that the state’s largest health care provider intends to halt infant deliveries at Memorial Hospital of Burlington and transfer that service to Aurora Lakeland Medical Center in Elkhorn. The Burlington hospital and clinic will continue to provide other women’s health services here, including prenatal and postpartum care.

Both Lewis and Dr. Michael Majewski, Burlington’s leading obstetrician, explained the decision came down to numbers.

Lewis said the hospital has had as many as 600 births in past years, but in 2012 that number fell to 270. She said 500 births is considered a viable number for staffing at most hospitals.

Majewski said the pool of expectant mothers from which the hospital draws has plunged in recent years – much of it due to Aurora’s own expansion in the area. He specifically mentioned the Aurora Medical Center in Kenosha and the Aurora Clinic in Lake Geneva (which feeds into Aurora Lakeland Medical Center) as having a significant drain on the number of births at the Burlington hospital.

With the number of births down, the hospital and clinic have had little success in recruiting another obstetrician to join Majewski and Dr. Meenakshi Bhillakar in Burlington long term. That translates into a burdensome on-call schedule for the two who remain.

Majewski, whose practice will still be based in Burlington, said he’d welcome alternatives that would allow Aurora to continue delivering babies in Burlington.

“I like driving 3.9 miles to work,” he said.

The changes

Lewis presented a slideshow that illustrated how the number of births at the hospital has plunged in comparison to emergency room visits and outpatient services.

She said these changing patterns when combined with changing reimbursement procedures associated with the Affordable Care Act – commonly referred to as Obamacare – will force hospitals to operate differently.

“Like a business, a hospital has to manage risk and cost to remain viable,” she said.

While the hospital’s birthing center may be shuttered, Lewis said she’ll look for ways to enhance or expand other services at the Burlington hospital.

She mentioned the breast cancer services currently offered by Dr. Joseph Majewski as a hospital specialty that merits a larger role. She said it would make sense to establish a breast health center in Burlington.

Even though Lewis hinted such services could be considered a feather in Burlington’s cap, there are a significant number of local leaders who say they’d prefer Aurora to maintain a full-service community hospital in Burlington.

“What I got out of (the meeting) is that this decision is being made at the corporate level in Milwaukee,” Burlington Mayor Bob Miller said. “In my opinion, it’s a financial decision and a financial decision only.

Check back later for a story on the reaction of Burlington Mayor Bob Miller to Aurora’s decision.