Women’s services units at Sierra Campus will soon close

Expectant mothers who were planning to have their babies at one central El Paso hospital, will soon have to find another hospital.

The women’s services units at Sierra Providence Hospital, located at 1625 Medical Center Dr., will be closing on June 30th.

The Sierra campus is located less than 2 miles away from another Providence hospital, Providence Memorial Hospital.

The plan is to consolidate the two women’s services units, moving the Sierra units over to Providence Memorial.

Rob Anderson, Group Chief Strategy Officer for The Hospitals of Providence, says having two hospitals, offering the same services, in close proximity to one another was a factor in the decision to close the women’s services units at Sierra.

“Was it a tough decision that we had to look at?’ Yes, it was and it was not taken lightly,” Anderson said. “Unfortunately, we determined that having that unit two miles away from our own facility did not make any sense.”

The Providence Sierra Campus recently celebrated its 40th anniversary.

Dr. Julio Novoa is an obstetrician-gynecologist that has been seeing his patients at the Sierra campus for more than 20 years.

He tells ABC-7 he was saddened by the news and he described the reaction from Sierra nurses after they heard that the units were closing.

“The nurses were very upset,” Novoa said. “They were crying up on labor and delivery when I walked up there. Most of the staff was in shock. They were saying ‘what about our jobs?”

Providence says the nurses’ jobs are safe and they’ll be reassigned to other Providence hospitals.

“This is not a layoff,” Anderson said. “We did not go in and say we’re going to layoff people that is not the intent of this. We’re doing this to benefit our patients because it’s the right thing to do for a greater, a higher and better level of care.”

Sierra Providence patients have also been notified that the units will soon be closing.

And for Dr. Novoa, it also means a restart in deciding which hospital he will recommend to his patients.

“You choose your hospital for your comfort level,” Novoa said. “You choose your hospital because you’ve done your own research into what you feel is the best for you. And the best for me was Sierra and I’m saddened by the situation.”

The units will close on June 30th, but Sierra nurses and staff were just notified on June 8th.

ABC-7 asked Providence officials, why the short notice?

“Would we have liked to do it six months ahead?’ Ok. I think we still would have had the same reaction and this way we made the decision. The right thing to do for the patients and all the campuses was to go ahead and begin that transition now rather than prolonging it,” Anderson said.