Tony Swart, the new administrator of Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City, told Baker County commissioners on Wednesday morning, March 5, that he is “committed to a build-back plan” to return maternity care to the Baker City hospital.

Swart said there is no timeframe for reopening the birthing center, which closed in August 2023.

He said he has been having conversations with doctors and other potential providers needed to resume obstetrics care.

Those conversations “are going very well,” Swart told commissioners during their regular meeting.

“We’re committed to the service,” he said.

Swart also told commissioners that the hospital is working on opening an “intermediate care unit” that would be “very similar” to the intensive care unit that closed at the hospital in January 2023.

Swart said in an interview Wednesday afternoon that he hopes to open the intermediate care unit between May and July.

“That’s our goal,” he said.

Swart said patients who need “true” intensive care would continue to be transferred to another hospital that has higher levels of care.

After the meeting, Commissioner Michelle Kaseberg, who said she invited Swart to attend the meeting, said she is “very excited” about the prospect of resuming maternity care at the hospital.

“I think it gives the community hope that they’re really working on it,” Kaseberg said.

She said she has talked with Swart recently about the county’s health care needs, including the results of a community survey on the topic done last fall in which many respondents cited the closure of the birthing center at the hospital as a concern.

Among the questions on the health care survey is this:

“What kinds of health care do you and others in Baker County wish you could get, but are not able to? Please select all that apply.”

Among the 1,360 choices that respondents made, maternity care was the second most common, at 17%, behind only specialty care, at 20%.

Swart told commissioners that although some results from the full report of the health care survey, which was released this week, are not “favorable” to Saint Alphonsus, he believes the data are “very helpful to us.”

Swart said he considers the survey results a “validation of the work we’re already moving forward on,” including the effort to return maternity care.

“We’re really in alignment with what the community is asking for,” he told commissioners.

Swart said in an interview after the meeting that officials from the Saint Alphonsus Health System and its parent company, Trinity Health, have been talking for the past few months about bringing back services, such as maternity care, that had ended.

Swart said a key task is ensuring that physicians will be available to deliver babies and provide other obstetrical care. He said he has had “very productive” conversations with Eastern Oregon Medical Associates. EOMA doctors who previously offered obstetrical care were critical of Saint Alphonsus’ decision to close the birthing center. The doctors gave up their privileges to treat patients at the hospital in 2023.

Swart said he believes hospital officials, and EOMA doctors, “have a common goal in doing what’s best for our patients and the community.”

He said he’s optimistic about the conversations with those doctors.

“I think we’ll end up in a good place,” Swart said.

Dr. Neil Carroll of EOMA sent the Herald a statement: “We feel that birthing services are an essential need in our community and we remain hopeful that these services can be restored to Saint Alphonsus Baker City.”

Commission chairman Shane Alderson said that although he was “very critical” of Saint Alphonsus in 2023, when hospital officials announced the closure of the ICU and then the birthing center, he appreciates the efforts that Swart talked about.

Alderson said he is supporting a bill in the Oregon Legislature that would increase Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals for certain care, including maternity.

Saint Alphonsus officials said in 2023 that birthing centers operate at a financial loss. They cited as the reasons for closing the center in Baker City the difficulty in maintaining the nursing staff, as well as a declining number of births.

Swart said finding sufficient nursing staff for a birthing center continues to be a challenge, but he said the Baker City hospital can potentially enlist nursing help from other hospitals owned by Trinity Health.