Labor and delivery services at OhioHealth Grady Memorial Hospital in Delaware, Ohio end on Friday, July 31. If you are pregnant and planned to deliver there, the practical work of changing that plan should happen in the next two days, not in the week you go into labor.
OhioHealth is directing expecting patients to three of its other hospitals: Dublin Methodist, Marion General, and Riverside Methodist, according to NBC4 WCMH-TV. Under normal driving conditions, Dublin Methodist and Marion General are each roughly a 30-minute drive from Delaware, and Riverside Methodist is about 35 minutes. Those times will be longer in traffic, and longer still from other parts of Delaware County.
Neither of central Ohio's other major systems, Mount Carmel and Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center, operates a labor and delivery unit in Delaware County. That is the full picture of local options.
Five Things to Confirm Before Friday
Where your obstetric practice has privileges, a physician or midwife can only deliver at hospitals where they hold admitting privileges. Ask your practice directly which of the three hospitals they deliver at, and whether the specific clinician you have been seeing will be the one attending. Practices sometimes split coverage across sites.
Whether the new hospital is in your insurance network is not the same question as whether your obstetric practice is in network. Ask your insurer to confirm the facility itself, and ask specifically about the anesthesiology, neonatology, and radiology groups that work there. Those groups often bill separately, and a hospital being in network does not guarantee every clinician inside it is.
Pre-registration. Most hospitals allow you to complete admission paperwork in advance. Doing it now removes a step from a stressful arrival at an unfamiliar facility.
Where your records are going. Confirm that prenatal records, including any imaging, lab work, and your birth plan, will be transferred to the delivering hospital. Ask when that transfer happens and get confirmation once it has.
A transportation plan with a backup. Decide who drives, what happens if that person is unavailable, and what the route looks like at the time of day you are most likely to need it. If you do not have reliable transportation, tell your obstetric practice now rather than later. Social work and care coordination staff can sometimes arrange assistance, but only if they know.
What Happens if Labor Starts and You Cannot Get There
This is the question that matters most, and the answer is reassuring on the point that counts.
If delivery feels imminent, call 911. Do not drive yourself, and do not have someone drive you while you are pushing. Emergency medical services can begin care en route and can deliver if necessary.
Grady's emergency department remains open. Under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, a hospital with an emergency department must provide a medical screening examination to anyone who comes in, and must provide stabilizing treatment for an emergency condition. The law addresses labor explicitly. For a woman in active labor, stabilizing treatment means delivery when transferring her would be unsafe. A hospital cannot turn away a woman who arrives in active labor because it has closed its maternity unit.
That is a legal floor, not a plan. An emergency department delivery is not equivalent to a planned delivery on a labor and delivery unit, and no one should treat Grady's ED as a substitute. But if you cannot make it, you are not without options.
Signs that mean go now rather than wait: regular contractions five minutes apart or closer for an hour, your water breaking, any bleeding, decreased fetal movement, severe headache, vision changes, or upper abdominal pain. Call your obstetric practice's after-hours line, and call 911 if symptoms are severe or delivery feels close.
What Stays at Grady and What Is Changing
Prenatal care, postpartum care, and gynecologic surgery are expected to remain at Grady, according to OhioHealth. That means routine appointments do not have to move even though delivery does.
One postpartum service is being reduced. Grady's only part-time lactation consultant is moving to a full-time position at Dublin Methodist, which local officials say would leave no lactation consultant in Delaware City or County able to bill private insurance. Private-pay and publicly funded lactation counseling would remain available. If breastfeeding support matters to you, ask now what the delivering hospital offers and what is available locally afterward.
OhioHealth has cited declining demand and increasing complexity of births as reasons for the closure, saying deliveries at Grady have fallen 23 percent since 2019 and that patients are better served at hospitals equipped for high-risk births.
The Disputes Worth Knowing About
Several questions about Grady's readiness remain contested, and patients should know what has been raised.
Delaware City Councilmember Linsey Griffith told NBC4 that the private ambulance service OhioHealth uses for transfers has notified the system it will no longer transport newborns. OhioHealth spokesperson Stephanie Stanavich said Grady "has partnered with other agencies and has sufficient coverage for newborn transport needs," but did not name those agencies.
Griffith also said OhioHealth told local officials that only physicians on Grady's emergency department staff hold Neonatal Resuscitation Program certification, and that a representative said the system would look into extending it to nurses. Stanavich said Grady staff are trained in the program and that continued training is available, but did not say whether any emergency department nurses currently hold the certification. She said the hospital has proper supplies, equipment, and protocols to treat obstetric emergencies. Griffith said officials were told Grady lacked dedicated protocols and training for maternal hemorrhage or emergency delivery.
Delaware City Council passed a resolution in June asking the Ohio attorney general to enforce a 2005 affiliation agreement the city says requires OhioHealth to maintain core services at Grady. The attorney general's office confirmed receiving the request and said it was reviewing it. The city was not a party to that agreement and has said it has little authority to stop the closure.
At a July rally, Griffith said "Ohio is 48th in the nation in infant mortality," alongside rankings of 37th in preterm birth and 29th in maternal mortality. Delaware resident Monica DeTota said the consequences would fall hardest on families with fewer transportation options, adding that "healthcare systems cannot be built around best-case scenarios."
Grady will stop delivering babies Friday, and OhioHealth is directing patients to three hospitals 30 to 35 minutes away. The people most affected are pregnant patients in Delaware County, particularly those without reliable transportation. The most reasonable action this week is to confirm privileges, network status, and records transfer, and to build a backup transportation plan. The central uncertainty is how newborn transport will work if an infant born at Grady's emergency department needs to be moved.
Frequently Asked Questions
When exactly does Grady stop delivering babies? Labor and delivery services end July 31, 2026. Prenatal care, postpartum care, and gynecologic surgery are expected to continue at Grady.
Where is OhioHealth directing patients? To OhioHealth Dublin Methodist, Marion General, and Riverside Methodist hospitals. Under normal conditions, Dublin Methodist and Marion General are roughly 30 minutes away and Riverside Methodist about 35 minutes.
What should I confirm with my insurer? That the specific hospital is in network, and separately that the anesthesiology, neonatology, and radiology groups practicing there are also in network. Those groups often bill independently of the facility.
What if I go into labor and cannot reach the hospital? Call 911. Do not drive yourself if delivery feels imminent. Grady's emergency department remains open, and federal law requires it to screen and provide stabilizing treatment, which for active labor can mean delivery.
Can an emergency department refuse someone in labor? No. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires a medical screening examination and stabilizing treatment, and it addresses labor specifically. This is a legal minimum, not a substitute for a planned delivery.
Will lactation support still be available in Delaware? Grady's only part-time lactation consultant is moving to Dublin Methodist. Local officials say that would leave no consultant in the city or county able to bill private insurance, though private-pay and publicly funded counseling would remain.
Why is the unit closing? OhioHealth has cited declining demand and increasing complexity of births, saying deliveries at Grady have fallen 23 percent since 2019.
