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Hackettstown Medical Center will be closing its maternity ward, according to a New Jersey Herald report.
(lehighvalleylive.com file photo)
Eight years after one Warren County hospital closed its maternity ward, the other appears poised to do the same.
Hackettstown Medical Center has not announced a date when it will cease deliveries, but when it does expectant mothers will be redirected to Newton Medical Center in Sussex County, according to a New Jersey Herald report Friday.
Two obstetricians are moving out of state, though two remain to provide related services, the newspaper reports.
Atlantic Health System acquired the Hackettstown hospital in April. Maternity services are being consolidated in Newton, the Herald reports. Atlantic took over that hospital five years earlier.
In 2008, what was then Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg closed its maternity ward in an effort to save nearly $2 million from its budget. When St. Luke's University Health Network acquired the hospital, it appeared for a time that the maternity ward may return but it was determined the area's birth rates were too low to warrant the investment.
Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.