Tuesday, May 27, 2003 | 9:36 a.m.
Desert Springs Hospital is closing its maternity center -- the second major department to close at the hospital this year.
Lori Harris, spokeswoman for Desert Springs, said the maternity center will close on Sept. 1, giving current patients and their doctors three months to find another birthing facility.
The hospital closed its general orthopedic surgery department Feb. 1.
The reasons for doing away with both services are similar.
One is a shift in market share from the urban areas to the rural hospitals of northwest Las Vegas, Green Valley and other booming suburban areas.
"Women want to have their babies in hospitals that are closer to their homes," Harris said.
Another reason is the loss of physicians in the wake of the last year's medical malpractice insurance crisis.
Desert Springs has lost 22 obstetrics/gynecology doctors in the last year, as a number of them have shifted to the suburbs or left their practices altogether because they could not afford malpractice insurance premiums.
In late January, the hospital said the departure of 19 of the hospital's 22 orthopedic surgeons played a major role in the hospital's decision to end that program.
Officials of the hospital in southeast Las Vegas also said at that time the population boom to northwest and southwest areas took away many patients from their market pool of prior years.
Harris said that while the hospital is not ready to announce any definite plans for new or additional services, she said officials are looking at more "specialty services."
"We are very strong in cardiac services, neurological and critical care," Harris said.
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