
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 7, 1991                   TAG: 9104070075
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: M. ANTHONY TIBBS/ LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                                LENGTH: Medium

MEDICAL SCHOOL PROVIDING FEWER OB-GYN INTERNS/ MOVE LIKELY TO AFFECT SERVICE

Local health officials are scrambling to find ways to continue delivering babies to indigent women now that Eastern Virginia Medical School plans to reduce the number of obstetrical and gynecological residents at Portsmouth General Hospital.

After Sept. 20, the equivalent of three doctors will be pared to two. Night and weekend deliveries will be eliminated.

"We're trying to put together some alternative," said Richard Maxwell, administrator at Portsmouth General.

The hospital delivers an average of about 700 babies a year to indigent women.

Maxwell said some private physicians have offered to be on call to help deliver babies. Meanwhile city officials are meeting with the medical school and community groups to help come up with solutions.

Indigent women make more than 4,000 visits a year to the Health Department's pre-natal clinic, which is staffed by an EVMS resident. Nearly all of those deliveries are made at Portsmouth General.

"We do the lion's share - about 95 percent of [indigent] deliveries," said Maxwell. "Right now our biggest commitment is to make sure we have some delivery facility in place. Somebody has got to care for these people."

Hospital officials might recruit nurse midwives to help with the deliveries. Maxwell said any private sector solution could cost about $500,000.

EVMS President Edward Brickell said new requirements for accreditation of the medical school have forced him to reduce the number of residents at Portsmouth General. The accrediting body has mandated that they work shorter hours, have more supervision and get at least one day off before a medical school can get an acceptable rating.

"Unless we get some notification that we might get additional residents, we will be able to afford only two full-time residents from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday" at Portsmouth General, Brickell said.

But even if more residents are authorized, no increase would be realized before July of next year when medical-school graduates are assigned to area hospitals.

A review committee from Chicago will be in the area April 11 to evaluate the medical school's residency program. The new requirements must be in place by July 1, Brickell said.

Because it doesn't own its own hospital, EVMS contracts with Portsmouth General, Sentara Norfolk General and DePaul Medical Center as training sites for 20 OB/GYN residents.

Brickell said the programs at the other two hospitals also would require more faculty supervision and residents. The programs at those hospitals are more specialized than the Portsmouth one and will remain intact.

Local officials, however, aren't satisfied with the medical school's staffing priorities.

"The babies aren't going to come between just 7 and 5," said Gwendolyn Smith-Lucas, Portsmouth director of human services.

Dr. Venita Newby-Owens, Portsmouth public health director, said: "We can't have women delivered out in the streets and the alleys. Something has to be done."

by CNB