Hillcrest Medical Center (HMC) is home to a new obstetric emergency department (OBED). The dedicated emergency room opened in Oct. 2025 for patients from 14 weeks of pregnancy to 6-week post-partum.
HMC’s OBED features:
- An obstetrics physician on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week
- Specialized providers and support staff who are trained and experienced in obstetric care
- Easy, straightforward access from HMC’s main circle drive
- Walk-in availability, regardless of insurance status or previous relationship with Hillcrest
- Supplies and resources available for mothers with newborns (breast pumps, cribs, diapers, etc.)
Having a separate emergency room for these patients is vital for ensuring the best possible outcomes for pregnant people, as it allows for immediate, specialized attention when time is of the essence.
Dr. Macy Gibson-Sanchez, OB-GYN at Utica Park Clinic and one of the physicians at the new OBED, answered a few questions about what makes the OBED unique.
What is an OBED?
“An obstetrics emergency department is a specialized unit at the hospital that is completely dedicated to taking care of pregnant and post-partum patients. We have a specialized team including OB hospitals that takes care of these patients and specialized equipment to take care of these patients as well.”
How is it different than a regular emergency room?
“In a regular ER, you have emergency providers and nurses. In the OBED specifically, we’ll have obstetrics and gynecological specialists who are focused on taking care of the patients. Our nurses are also labor and delivery nurses. Anybody that you encounter in the OBED will have worked with pregnant women. There will be an OB-GYN doctor at the hospital 24/7 so they can get to these pregnant patients quickly.
If a patient needed fetal monitoring, for example, or a specialized ultrasound for a fetal wellbeing check, patients would traditionally have to get a workup in the regular ER and then be transferred to the labor and delivery department for an evaluation. But, in the OBED, we have fetal monitoring; we have specialized ultrasounds. We’ll be more focused on being able to take care of the patient and their baby all at once.
We also anticipate shorter wait times in the OBED than the regular ER because we’ll be seeing fewer patients. We know that with obstetrical patients, time is of the essence, so we make it a priority to try to get these patients seen quickly.”
Why is having an OBED important?
“First, patients get faster access to specialized care. With obstetrical patients, things can go from good to bad very quickly. Time really matters when you’re talking about deliveries, C-sections, heavy bleeding, etc.
Second, the OBED provides a setting for our providers to view the patient holistically, treating them for whatever they need in addition to treating obstetrics needs instead of having the patient go back and forth from ER to the women’s health department.”If you’re experiencing a medical emergency, call 911. To learn more information about HMC’s OBED or other women’s health services at Hillcrest, call 918-579-1000 or click here.