Here are three hospitals closing departments or ending services since Sept. 1:
1. York (Maine) Hospital is closing its birthing center by the end of the month. Hospital officials noted that the decision to do so is the result of a decline in births and a shortage of workers. The hospital is the sixth in Maine to shutter its maternity care services since 2015, according to the outlet. Hospital officials are working with patients to coordinate a transfer of care to the Dover, N.H.-based Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, which is about 15 miles away.
2. West Des Moines, Iowa-based MercyOne will shutter its Albert Lea clinic on Dec. 31, eliminating its only facility in the state of Minnesota. The decision to close the family medicine and specialty care clinic comes despite "extended efforts" to keep it open, according to an Aug. 30 community update from MercyOne.
3. Inglewood, Calif.-based Centinela Hospital Medical Center is ending maternal child health services on Oct. 25 amid continued fallout over the death of a patient earlier this year. The Prime Healthcare facility wrote on its website in July that demand for maternal health has decreased, leading the hospital "to focus on growing other essential services based on community needs."