Region’s First Obstetrics Unit in More Than Three Decades Opens at Jefferson Hospital

Highmark Health and Allegheny Health Network delivered on a promise today to bring much-needed obstetrics care to women close to home with the opening of the new Women and Infants Center at Jefferson Hospital. Patient admissions to the new Center will begin on Monday, November 10.

At a ceremony this morning attended by representatives of Highmark Health, Allegheny Health Network and Jefferson Hospital, along with the hospital’s community partners and elected officials, expecting moms-to-be cut the ribbon to mark the opening of Jefferson’s new obstetrics unit – where they have chosen to deliver their babies.

Allan Klapper, MD, Chair, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Allegheny Health Network, said the opening of the new obstetrics unit is significant because it has been done at a time when many hospitals locally and nationally have closed their maternity units in recent years. From 2000 to 2013, a total of 12 area obstetrics departments in western Pennsylvania closed their doors, leaving women with very few options for places to receive quality maternity services.

“Today we cut the ribbon not only on a new Women and Infants Center, but on a new era of exceptional and compassionate care for our region’s women and their growing families,” Dr. Klapper said. “In planning and developing this beautiful Women and Infants Center, we have surrounded women with nothing but the highest level of care possible, including leading-edge technology and a supremely talented and experienced medical team, led by Dr. David Logan.”

David Holmberg, president and CEO, Highmark Health, said that putting patients first means understanding their needs and focusing on innovative ways to meet them.

“Patients have told us, and the health care trends tell us, that customers want to have convenient access to quality health care services right in their community. There is perhaps no better example of how important that convenience is than for an expecting woman who no longer has to travel miles into the city when her time to deliver arrives. Women and their children are an important part of Allegheny Health Network’s expansion plans and we are committed to continued investment in state-of-the- art services that meet their needs when and where they need it,” Holmberg said.

A 2012-2013 Community Health Care Needs Assessment conducted by Jefferson Hospital and leaders in the communities served by Jefferson determined that women’s health services in the southern region was the number-one priority. The dedication of the new obstetrics program at the hospital follows the opening in July of Jefferson’s comprehensive Women’s Health Center in the South Hills Medical Building.

“Bringing obstetrics services to the women of our community at a beautiful facility with the latest technology and many amenities for mothers and their babies is an achievement of which we are very proud. We look forward to providing women with unsurpassed level of care and compassion as they start their families or add to their families,” said Louise Urban, president and CEO, Jefferson Hospital.

Located on Jefferson Hospital’s 4th floor, the new Women and Infants Center features labor, delivery, recovery and post-partum (LDRP) suites designed for women’s comfort, where the entire birth process takes place. Each LDRP is fully equipped with a birthing bed, bedside fetal monitoring equipment, medical gases, infant warmer, and equipment needed for infant resuscitation and stabilization. Centralized fetal monitoring will provide constant surveillance of the mother and baby.

The new unit also includes a Level II (continuing care) nursery for special needs, two dedicated cesarean-section rooms, 24/7 obstetric anesthesia and newborn services, numerous patient services and amenities, the latest in infant security technology and an Austin’s Playroom. The playroom is a gift from the Mario Lemieux Foundation’s Austin’s Playroom Project initiative, and was funded by a grant from the Allegheny County Economic Development Community Infrastructure and Tourism Fund.

Additionally, a Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) – the highest and most sophisticated level of care possible – is located at AHN’s West Penn Hospital and readily available by air or ground transport if needed.

Public tours of the facility – as well as the hospital’s Women’s Health Center and Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute at Jefferson Hospital in South Hills Medical Building – will be available at a community open house on Thursday, Nov. 6 from 4 to 7 p.m. For more information, call 412-469-7100.

About Allegheny Health Network

Allegheny Health Network is a western Pennsylvania-based integrated healthcare system that serves patients from across a five-state region that includes Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The Network offers exceptional facilities and programs to enhance and support the health of expectant women, their newborns and children at four hospitals: Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, Saint Vincent Hospital in Erie, West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh and Jefferson Hospital in Jefferson Hills. For more information or an appointment with an AHN physician, call 412.DOCTORS (412.362.8677) or visit ahn.org.