The Texas Tribune

On Labor Day 2019, Ginger Kalafatis burst through the doors of Jasper Memorial Hospital and into her worst nightmare. 

Two women showed up at the hospital, ready to give birth: One woman was delivering prematurely; the other had previous cesarean sections and no prenatal care.

Kalafatis’ situation normally wouldn’t have been difficult, but just three days prior, hospital administrators closed the hospital’s labor and delivery unit, intending to get out of the business of delivering babies and citing a lack of staffing. More than three years later, the unit remains closed. 

She had warned those around her of the consequences of losing the last labor and delivery unit in a five-county region — women delaying prenatal care and being forced to drive over an hour to cities like Lufkin or Beaumont just to give birth. 

Jasper Memorial Hospital had joined the 60% of rural Texas hospitals that no longer deliver babies, unless there’s an emergency, essentially creating a maternity care desert. 

Chloe Walker, 18, drove close to 90 minutes to Lufkin every time she needed a checkup or was worried she might be going into labor. The anxiety around when and where she would give birth lasted throughout her pregnancy. She eventually gave birth while in Lufkin for a checkup, and her location proved to be lifesaving as the umbilical cord was wrapped around her daughter’s neck three times. She was able to deliver safely with trained medical staff on hand. 

Jasper County has lost three hospitals since the mid-1980s. For Jasper Memorial, the fragile economics of rural health care in the late 1990s, combined with financial mismanagement, threatened the hospital. Eventually, it became part of the health system Christus Health, going from being a community hospital to a cog in a much larger system. Currently, rural health care advocates are eyeing how lawmakers will spend the state’s $27 billion surplus this legislative session, in hopes that a sliver will go toward restoring health care services to desperate regions. Many programs already exist to assist rural areas — like loan forgiveness, medical education and enhanced Medicaid reimbursement — it’s just a matter of steady funding.  

For retired family physician Ron McMurry, one mission of his is to nurture a new generation of doctors, particularly family physicians who are able to provide comprehensive health care to the entire patient population. 

“It’s sad when you realize that someone that goes into labor in Jasper County has to travel 50, 70 miles to deliver,” he said. “That is a public health hazard in and of itself.” 

Read more from the Tribune’s Eleanor Klibanoff. 

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