To:
PeaceHealth Foundation Board of Directors
Liz Dunne, President and CEO
Richard DeCarlo, EVP and COO
Mary Kingston, Chief Executive, PeaceHealth Oregon
Todd Salnas, COO, PeaceHealth Oregon
Mike Metcalf, Chief Executive, PeaceHealth Medical Group
Dr. Scott Foster, MPH, Chief Medical Executive, PeaceHealth Medical Group

                                                                                                                                                                       July 9, 2019


Re: Public letter regarding the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center


Dear PeaceHealth Leadership:

We are donors to the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center and we are writing to ask you for our money back.

PeaceHealth's Nurse Midwifery Birth Center has been serving our community since the late 1970s. Nine years ago, we donated to help create a new home for the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center, adjacent to the RiverBend hospital location. This site is a crucial piece of the birth center model of care.

At that time, PeaceHealth made a commitment to us as donors, as well as to the broader community. It was a commitment based deeply in PeaceHealth mission and values. We believed we were investing in a long-term commitment to a sustainable care model by contributing building funds through the Sacred Heart Medical Foundation.
 
The Nurse Midwifery Birth Center is the only maternity care practice in town that attends births both in the hospital and in a free-standing birth center. This provides continuity of care for families who prefer an out-of-hospital birth. The Nurse Midwifery Birth Center does not restrict the number of women on Medicaid in their care as often happens in other practices. Closing the birth center would mean less equitable access to quality care and is in direct contradiction to PeaceHealth's stated value of the just distribution of resources.

Our Nurse Midwifery Birth Center provides a model of care that offers an important corrective to the challenges related to social determinants for the health of mothers and families in our community. The birth center contributes to significantly lower rates of pre-term birth, low birth weight, and cesarean sections. All three of these have been identified as key national objectives for increasing maternal, infant and child health. Closing the birth center would significantly under serve families in our community.

This is the third attempt by PeaceHealth to close the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. Every time the community speaks resolutely to ensure these threats are not realized. Breaking this commitment is a violation of PeaceHealth’s core value of ethical and responsible stewardship.

We realize that with significant turnover recently among senior leadership roles, some may not yet understand the legacy of the commitment PeaceHealth made to us as donors and to the community. We hope you will take the time to educate yourselves. Ultimately, we need a renewed commitment from PeaceHealth, one that respects the birth center model of care, empowers birthing mothers, and supports the midwives who serve them. When this happens, the whole community benefits.

In the meantime, please return our donations to us.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

Adam Bell
Adam Hughes
Angela Bradley, FNP
Annie Hoag
Austin Bailey
Brian Bradely
Bethel A Edens RN
Bryan Weaver
Charles Heritage
Christine Heritage
Cynthia Hunter, CNM
David Wacks
Debbie Jensen BSM, BSN, M.Ed., IBCLC
Deborah Fuerth, MD
Dennis Carr
Desiree Nelson
Deven Holmgren
Diane Sage
Dr. Catherine B. Kordesch
Dr. David C. Fryefield
Dr. John . Holtzapple
Eden L. Cronk
Eleanor Vandegrift
Emerald Williams
Eric Johnson -
Ginny Dunphy
Greg Jensen
Helen Haberman
Inger Fox-Huston
Jacqueline Weaver
James Stephen Edens ASCP
Jena Price
Jennifer Di Francesco, FNP
Jett Nilprabhassom
Jimmy Unger, MD
John Dunphy
John W. Larson, DMD
Joshua Skov
Joy Hatch
Jude Hales
Judith Eisen
Julie Voelker-Morris
Karen Guillemin
Katharine Gallagher
Kathy Lynn
Keavy Cook
Kirsten Hughes
Linda D. Frison, MD
Lisette Ewing
Lucy B. Stroock
Mary Carpenter, CNM
Matt Huston
Max Gimbel
Michele Peters-Carr, CNM
Mr. Victor Guillemin
Mrs. Victor Guillemin
Ms. Vicki Harkovitch
Rand Kaplan
Renee Bailey
Robert Voelker-Morris
Ryan Turner
Shelly Bosworth
Sylvia Garrett
Todd Bosworth
Tom Ewing