The Vancouver Clinic (TVC), Clark County’s largest health care provider, will expand its ability to care for women in North Clark County with the addition of midwives from Pacific Midwifery Services. The Vancouver Clinic will now have a total of 11 midwives able to provide labor and delivery services at both Vancouver hospitals.
“It’s been a couple of years since The Vancouver Clinic has had midwifery capacity to deliver babies at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center,” said Dr. Alfred Seekamp, Chief Medical Officer at The Vancouver Clinic. “This is a great opportunity for us to add to our team and meet the needs of a growing population of patients at our Salmon Creek and Battle Ground clinics, as well as our future clinic in Ridgefield.”
The opportunity came to The Vancouver Clinic when Kathleen Hensch-Fleming, CNM, announced plans to retire after a 38-year career in health care including 17 years as the owner of Pacific Midwifery Services.
“Serving women in Clark County and now delivering babies for a second generation of families has been a great honor,” said Hensch-Fleming. “It’s been harder than I thought to start to say good-bye to my patients but I’m excited to grow tomatoes, quilt and spend time with my grandchildren.”
As Hensch-Fleming looks forward to retirement her fellow midwives will receive new badges and move to The Vancouver Clinic. As of June 1, 2017, Donna Stiles, Patty Kartchner and Lori Watson will join our OB/GYN and midwifery practice as certified nurse midwives. They will continue delivering babies at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center, offering water births and helping to grow the number of patients The Vancouver Clinic is able to serve.
A dedicated TVC hotline has been established during the transition for patients wanting to schedule appointments after June 1 with one of the three midwives. That number is 360-397-3838.
Expanding our midwifery practice includes broadening our partnership with Molina Healthcare beginning June 1, 2017. The partnership will increase TVC’s acceptance of new OB and midwifery patients insured through Molina Medicaid.
