Eighty-six percent of rural Florida hospitals have stopped delivering babies. That stunning statistic, from the Florida Rural Health Association, highlighted in a recent presentation on National Rural Health Day, shows a deepening crisis in the state’s rural counties. With so many local labor and delivery wards shuttered, families face long travel distances for basic maternity care.
Clarissa Ortiz, director of clinical operations for the Florida Association of Community Health Centers, said a severe lack of providers is at the core of the problem.
“Rural areas have a severe shortage of family physicians, mental-health providers, maternal health,” she said, “and we do also have severe shortages of obstetricians and other specialty services in rural areas.
With so many rural hospitals no longer offering labor and delivery services, the state has applied for a share of a one-time, $50 billion federal fund and launched its own $50 million loan program for local innovation.
Ortiz said the lack of local services creates a direct barrier to care, a problem confirmed by state data which classifies nearly 20% of Florida’s counties as maternity-care “deserts.”
“In Florida, about 19.4% of counties are defined as maternity care deserts,” she said. “For example 10.8% of women had no birthing hospital within 30 minutes compared to 9.7% in the United States.”
Health policy experts caution in reports that the multi-billion-dollar federal fund may not be enough to reverse decades of decline, as a single hospital closure can cost a local economy up to $20 million.