Viewpoint: Hospital statement on closure of maternity center misleads

As the Ob/Gyns of Western Montana Clinic, providing all obstetric and gynecologic care at Saint Patrick Hospital, we must correct the misleading statements made by CEO Mr. Bill Calhoun regarding the closure of the Family Maternity Center (FMC), effective October 10, 2025.

Despite Mr. Calhoun's assurances that this decision was carefully considered with input from "key clinical experts, community leaders, and internal stakeholders," this is categorically false. None of the physicians or clinical staff from the FMC, nor leadership of the Western Montana Clinic, were included in any decision-making process. We learned of our unit's closure on the morning of June 3rd — mere hours before the public announcement — through a meeting to which only one of our five Ob/Gyns was invited, and for the rest of us, via a hospital-wide memo.

Since its opening on August 3, 2015, the FMC team has provided exceptional, individualized care supporting women's autonomy in their birth experiences. For decades, the Western Montana Clinic has worked collaboratively with the Saint Patrick Hospital administration, believing we were partners in providing essential healthcare to our community. The characterization of this unilateral closure as a "collaborative effort" is not just inaccurate—it is a betrayal of that partnership and an insult to the dedication of each care provider, who has covered both scheduled and emergent women’s healthcare at Saint Patrick Hospital – every hour, of every day, and every week, year after year.

Healthcare decisions of this magnitude demand input from medical professionals who understand the clinical implications, and from community members who depend on these services. Excluding the very people who provide the care represents a fundamental failure of healthcare governance and a dangerous departure from patient-centered decision-making.

We are heartbroken to leave the exceptional team at Saint Patrick Hospital, where together we have provided compassionate and comprehensive women's healthcare, and truly felt we were serving our calling.

We will continue advocating for women's healthcare access in the greater Missoula community. We will honor your choices about how and where you access care, even as those options become increasingly restricted. We stand with all those who are affected by this decision to reduce access to women’s health care. Most importantly, we will continue providing the highest quality women's healthcare, regardless of the constraints now imposed upon us.

Elise Abicht, MD; Janice Givler, MD; Candace Hoppe, NP; Jennifer Mayo, MD; Meghan Moorhead, MD; Sandra Richardson, NP; Amy Smith, MD