Mayo Clinic to end on-call labor and delivery in Owatonna Nov. 17
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Mayo Clinic Health System is ending on-call labor and delivery services at Owatonna’s hospital next month, Nov. 17, meaning patients who go into labor could be diverted to other hospitals that are at least 40 minutes away.
Mayo Clinic notified Owatonna’s mayor and officials in the city of about 25,000 people about an hour south of the Twin Cities on Thursday.
“We were absolutely dumbstruck,” Owatonna Mayor Matt Jessop said. “It just came out of nowhere.”
A Mayo Clinic spokesperson confirmed it will no longer provide obstetrics physicians to the Owatonna Hospital to deliver babies, telling MPR News Saturday that the medical care giant is unable to continue the service due to recent staffing challenges and an ongoing nationwide shortage of OB-GYN physicians.
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“Mayo Clinic Health System (MCHS) remains deeply committed to supporting patients and serving the Owatonna community,” a Mayo Clinic spokesperson said. “MCHS care teams will continue working with each patient to support their needs through every stage of their pregnancy and ensure they receive safe, coordinated and high-quality care.”
Allina Health is set to take over responsibility for on-call labor and delivery staffing on Nov. 17. Allina operates Owatonna Hospital and Mayo operates the Owatonna Clinic — all on one health campus — as part of a joint operating agreement. Allina currently employs labor and delivery nurses, but not physicians who do obstetrics.
Under a separate contract, Mayo Clinic Health System has been solely providing all labor and delivery physician services in the Owatonna hospital and will continue to do so until next month.. The hospital delivers about 400 babies in the Owatonna birth center each year.
Allina Health told MPR News Saturday that Mayo first informed them of the change, giving the required 30-day notice, on Sep. 9. Allina said they are in active discussions with Mayo to establish a viable model for sustainable labor and delivery coverage at the hospital to preserve these vital services in the community.
“The safety of our patients and care team members is Allina Health’s priority,” an Allina spokesperson said. “Recognizing the widely understood and significant challenges of physician recruitment, declining birth rates and reimbursement in rural communities, we have accelerated our planning and are assessing all options.”
Attracting and keeping obstetrics physicians in hospitals in rural areas can be difficult, and because birthing centers require doctors and nurses on duty or on call 24/7, due to the unpredictable nature of births, that staffing is expensive. And birthing services bring in less revenue into rural hospitals, because they see fewer births on average and more patients who are on Medicaid, which reimburses hospitals less than private health insurance plans.
This Owatonna situation is unfolding amid a nationwide shortage of labor and delivery services which is hitting rural areas the hardest. The Minnesota Department of Health said since 2024 there have been three labor and delivery unit closures — Mayo’s clinic’s birthing centers in Fairmont and New Prague, and Essentia Health’s unit in Fosston. Last month, Mayo also announced it was closing six of its rural clinics in southeastern Minnesota.
Katy Kozhimannil studies rural maternity care as a public health professor at the University of Minnesota. She said it’s hard to know at this point exactly how Owatonna patients will be affected by this change. But her research shows that as rural communities lose hospital-based obstetric services, there’s an increase in the rate of out-of-hospital births and pre-term birth.
“Local access to childbirth care and to services and support for pregnant patients is really, really important to communities, and any changes to that need to be considered with a lot of care and attention,” Kozhimannil said.
Allina said they are working on plans to cover potential service gaps when Mayo’s coverage ends on Nov. 17. That will likely include Owatonna Hospital diverting patients who are in labor to other hospitals as of Nov. 17, until a viable long-term solution is in place. It’s unclear how long that will take.
Allina officials said they will be working with other area hospitals, such as Faribault Medical Center 15 miles away, to ensure continuity of care for patients. Allina has no primary or specialty care clinics in Owatonna, except for a rehabilitation institute.
Mayo said expectant mothers will continue to receive prenatal and postpartum care from their MCHS teams in Owatonna, and that providers will work directly with each patient to review their birth plan and discuss delivery options. It’s unclear where Mayo will refer its patients for labor and delivery. Mayo operates clinics that offer this service in Austin and Rochester — both about 45 minutes away.
Jessop said there’s still a lot of confusion in the community, and he’s concerned that patients will experience gaps in care. He and the city council, along with the Chamber of Commerce, penned letters in opposition to the change last week. They plan to discuss it at the city council meeting Tuesday.
He said the city has been intentionally recruiting more and more people to Owatonna and has a goal of growing their population to 30,000 by 2030. This feels like a step back.
“It’s completely detrimental to every effort we’ve made over the last several years to draw people to Owatonna and to show them what a fabulous place this is to live and to raise your family,” Jessop said. “That’s what brought me back to Owatonna. That's what's kept me in Owatonna, and now, all of a sudden, a part of that is gone.”
Chamber of Commerce CEO Brad Meier said he’s particularly concerned with how this could hurt the local economy. In recent years they’ve invested in new businesses and industry to revitalize the city, including reconstructing the downtown area and building a new high school.
He’s hopeful Allina and Mayo can come up with a solution to continue offering labor and delivery services in town.
But, U of M expert Kozhimannil warned that the logistics of building up new labor and delivery coverage could get complicated. Though Allina has some labor and delivery nurses, they will need other support and adequate clinic staffing levels and enough revenue coming in to cover the costs.
And she said she’s concerned, based on her research, that these changes will affect prenatal care in Owatonna, at least for the time being.
“They spend the time in their prenatal visits talking about the logistics of where they need to go to give birth and what things can be performed locally as opposed to addressing the clinical aspects of the pregnancy. The psychological burden and stress as well as the logistics, can be really challenging for people.”
