BARBERTON, Ohio — Summa Health officials announced Wednesday that the hospital system will be ending labor and delivery services at its Barberton Campus and transitioning them to the Akron Campus in November.
The decision comes after a “lengthy and detailed evaluation period” and follows similar moves by other hospital systems in Northeast Ohio and across the country. Last month, University Hospitals announced that it would be discontinuing delivery services at UH Portage and consolidating them at the UH Geauga Medical Center.
The decision was made due to declining utilization of delivery services at the Barberton Campus, and to allow Summa Health more time to plan for a transition to better serve mothers-to-be, their newborns, and their families at a comprehensive center at the Akron Campus, according to a memo sent by Summa Health President and CEO Dr. Cliff Deveny to the organization Tuesday.
“In making this announcement, I want to be very clear that Summa Health remains committed to the Barberton community and we have no plans to eliminate inpatient services or to make wide-ranging cuts across the campus,” Deveny said.
All frontline clinical employees will be offered positions at the Akron Camps labor and delivery unit or in other areas of the organization, representatives said. Plans for the vacated labor and delivery space at the Barberton Campus will be announced at a later date.
Barberton Mayor William Judge provided this statement to News 5 about Summa Health's decision:
The loss of services at Barberton is not something that we were aware of and as mayor & a life long resident we want Summa Barberton to thrive and grow. I understand the business decision that was made as well as the other great services Summa Barberton provides to our residents and the community at large. I look forward to continuing our relationship with Summa’s leadership team and working with them on future services at the Barberton campus.
Reporter Bob Jones will have more on this story on News 5 this evening.
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
