MedStar Washington Hospital Center nurses protest planned postpartum unit closure

Registered nurses at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., say they will hold a press conference and protest on Thursday, June 18, to object to planned cuts to postpartum services at the city’s largest hospital. National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United announced the action on June 16, saying nurses want to draw attention to community and patient safety concerns tied to management’s decision.

The planned protest follows growing frustration among frontline staff after hospital leadership confirmed that postpartum unit 5F will close permanently. According to the union, the shutdown will remove 11 maternal health beds by July 26, 2026. Nurses say the change comes at a time when the hospital plays an outsized role in maternity care across the District.

The release says that one in three babies born in Washington, D.C., is delivered at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. It also notes that from 2000 to 2018, all obstetric programs on the east side of the District were shuttered, leaving no obstetric programs in Wards 5 through 8. For nearly a decade, the hospital and Howard University Hospital have been the only options on that side of the city, with MedStar Washington Hospital Center handling most of the care.

“The east side of Washington, D.C., is a maternity health desert,” said Korrin Gholston, a registered nurse in labor and delivery at the hospital. Gholston said that although Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center has opened in Ward 8, it reported 100 births in its first year, compared with 9,100 at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and 1,700 at Howard University Hospital. Gholston also said the hospital’s proximity to Children’s National Medical Center means it cares for the District’s most at-risk newborns in ways no other hospital in the city can.

Stephanie Sims-Coates, a registered nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit, said families trust the hospital staff and plan to come there for care. Sims-Coates said closing the unit would be a major error in a city already facing a maternal health crisis and would have a serious effect on people most impacted by health disparities.

Community health providers also said they are concerned about the shutdown. Dr. Kate Sugarman, a physician, community health advocate and clinical faculty member at GW School of Medicine and Georgetown Law, said she cares for low-income and immigrant communities in the District and sees the barriers patients face. Sugarman said closing 11 postpartum beds would directly compromise the safety of mothers and infants she treats every day. She added that shutting down an entire mother/baby unit would run counter to MedStar’s stated commitment to addressing the District’s maternal mortality crisis.

The announcement said who would participate in the June 18 event: registered nurses at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and D.C. community leaders. The press conference and protest are scheduled for 9 to 9:30 a.m. at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, at the corner of Irving Street NW and First Street NW.

NNOC/NNU said it represents more than 2,200 registered nurses at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. National Nurses United said it is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States, with more than 225,000 members nationwide. Its affiliates include the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association and New York State Nurses Association.