Rainy Lake Medical Center officials told The Journal Friday that they are working on developing a plan that would continue obstetrics, or OB, care locally.
“Ever since (RLMC) announced they were going to discontinue OB, we’ve been working on a plan to try to make sure that we could have something covered,” said Angela Liedke, foundation and marketing coordinator for RLMC.
RLMC officials earlier this month announced that beginning Oct. 1, late-term prenatal care and baby delivery services at the RLMC clinic and hospital campuses will be temporarily halted. A shortage of doctors in the area providing prenatal care spurred the decision.
Doctors will provide OB care until the patient’s 36th week of pregnancy. Prenatal care for the last four weeks of pregnancy will be referred to clinics and hospitals in Virginia, Hibbing, Bemidji and Duluth.
Although it isn’t final, Liedke said officials this week, have been working on a plan to continue OB care after the Oct. 1 deadline to temporarily discontinue the service.
“It looks good,” Liedke said of the plan.
She said the potential plan could include locum doctors, which are physicians who work in the place of the regular doctor when that doctor is absent, or when a hospital/practice is short-staffed. These professionals are still governed by their respective regulatory bodies, despite the transient nature of their positions.
The local clinic was reduced from five doctors to three doctors who provide prenatal care after former RLMC physicians Bobbi Schneller and Jesse Heuer resigned from the clinic.
Check The Journal for more updates as RLMC’s decision develops.
