Practice History
While many of us have been in active practice for a number of years, BirthCare-HealthCare was "born" in April 1982 after we were invited to manage the care of clients in one of the first two licensed freestanding birth centers to be licensed in the state of Utah, Utah Women's Birth Center in downtown Salt Lake City. The same month, some of our nurse-midwifery colleagues opened another licensed freestanding birth center in Murray, Utah, the Birth and Family Center. We both provided comprehensive childbearing services in our respective practices for four wonderful years. Births that could not be conducted at the birth centers were managed by the CNMs with physician collaboration at Holy Cross Hospital and Pioneer Valley Hospital respectively. When the "insurance crisis" hit the nation in the mid 80's, insurance coverage of many types became unavailable. This, and other individual center's reasons, resulted in both birth centers closing in April 1986.
We consolidated the practices of both groups into BirthCare-HealthCare and opened our practice office in Cedar Park in Murray Utah. We were pleased to be able to add a pediatric nurse practitioner and several mental health psychiatric nurse specialists to our provider group. Later we added a family nurse practitioner. This positioned us to provide the full range of primary health care services to women and their families. Births continued to be conducted at Holy Cross Hospital (now Salt Lake Regional Hospital.).
We were delighted, several years later, when the Family Health Plan (FHP) health maintenance organization (HMO) decided to build a birthing center within one of their clinic sites near Redwood road in Salt Lake City. They already had an excellent cadre of certified nurse-midwives working in their provider group with them. Because of our graduate education program in nurse-midwifery at the College of Nursing, they graciously invited us to bring our clients to their new birth center.
Again we were able to offer a choice of birth site to our clients. In November, 1991 we were invited to bring our hospital clients to the University Hospital. We left Holy Cross hospital with fond regrets and wonderful memories, but appreciated the warm welcome afforded us in our new hospital site.
Our practice continued at FHP licensed freestanding birth center and at the University Hospital until early in 1993. At that time we were no longer able to take our clients to the FHP birth center, and it closed several months later in anticipation of the opening of the new FHP hospital. We have continued conducting births at the University hospital.
The University Health Sciences Center, through the Vice President for Health Sciences and the then Acting Director of the University Hospital, offered to fund the establishment of our own free standing BirthCenter. BirthCare-HealthCare providers identified a site in Holladay, Utah, a suburb within the greater Salt Lake valley area. They then drew plans for a clinic and birth center, and worked with an architectural firm and contractor to renovate the space.
Meticulous attention and loving care to each aspect of decoration, furnishings and placement of equipment and supplies for safe, optimal, quality services to women and their families resulted in a beautiful, peaceful, environment. The practice office at Cedar Park moved to the new clinic site in Holladay in April 1994 and the first birth in the new University Birth Center was conducted on May 19, 1994.
For 5 years and 8 months our BirthCare-HealthCare faculty practice group provided community based management of childbearing and primary health care services at the Holladay site. Hundreds of families have received health care services from BirthCare-HealthCare providers, and a number have returned for their 4th or 5th birth experience with us over their years of childbearing. On December 17, 1999 the University Hospital closed the Holladay facility, due to financial constraints. Since that time we have continued our faculty practice in two sites who contracted with the College of Nursing for our use of their facility, and two sites under the aegis of University Hospital and Clinics. Our practice is continually developing as we work to maintain our unique commitment to women and families in Utah through new opportunities.