Across rural America, labor and delivery units aren’t closing due to a lack of need. They’re closing because maintaining the workforce necessary to sustain them has become increasingly challenging.
At the American Hospital Association’s Rural Health Care Leadership Conference, Jami Walker, Vice President of Maternal Health Access Solutions at OBHG, encouraged hospital leaders to reconsider how they define and safeguard access to care.
“If a woman calls and is told she can’t be seen for three months, that’s not access,” Walker said. “We don’t think three months ahead. We can’t even plan three weeks ahead, typically.”
For Walker, meaningful access means real-time connections to clinicians, sustainable staffing models and care intentionally designed around the specific needs of a community.
That philosophy also guides Ob Hospitalist Group’s Maternal Health Access Solutions, which emphasizes workforce sustainability, tailored program design and long-term partnerships to keep care close to home.
“Hospital leaders need to understand women in the community as a very foundational space. Who lives in your community, who’s seeking care and who’s seeking care but isn’t finding it. It’s all part of the puzzle here that you must think through when you’re trying to solve,” says Walker.
Every hospital is unique, shaped by the distinct needs of its community. Ob Hospitalist Group’s Maternal Health Access Solutions provides consultative workforce support to rural, community and urban hospitals that don’t fit a traditional OB hospitalist model.
“Not everybody has the same capabilities, not everybody has the same structure or the same things that they’re trying to solve for, so being able to take the experience of Ob Hospitalist Group and our 20 year existence and lean in and ask the questions that are able to identify the differences of those hospitals and the differences of the communities and the differences of the women in those communities allows us to customize that solution down to the finest detail.”
Walker emphasizes that one of the most important takeaways for hospital leaders is to truly understand the women and healthcare needs within their communities.
“If you think of a woman who is pregnant in a rural community, resources are incredibly important to her, not only for her current circumstance, but for the future of care for her, for her child and for the rest of her family. Ultimately, women are typically the Chief Medical Officer of their family. That is a very common thing that is known in the United States, that women make healthcare decisions for their family. So if a woman can have an experience close to home and where access is obtainable and is easy, meaning that meaningful access to care so that she doesn’t have to take off work, so that she doesn’t have to rearrange her entire day and her entire life, that will alter health care for their family as well.”
Ultimately, rebuilding rural maternal health access requires more than preserving services — it demands rethinking how care is staffed, structured and sustained. Workforce challenges will not solve themselves, but with intentional design and strong partnerships, hospitals can create models that protect access for the long term. By prioritizing sustainable staffing and community-centered solutions, leaders can ensure women and families receive the care they need close to home.
For hospital leaders, the call to action is clear: evaluate your current access gaps, engage directly with the women and families you serve, and partner with experienced organizations that can help design flexible, sustainable workforce models. Protecting maternal health access starts with understanding your community and committing to solutions built to support it for years to come.