Ob/Gyn St. Croix

Why is he leaving??

I got their letter in the mail. When I called to request my records (per the instructions in the letter) there was no answer, no answering machine, nothing. Just kept ringing. Great way to get your records, huh?

I don't know why they're leaving. I heard it was August 31st and that the woman Krista (who i really liked) is leaving island too 🙁 I guess i'll wait for my records...did they have any referral places?

Dr. Miller was my daughters OB. On her last visit he told her that he was closing his office because his mother was ill and he was returning to the states. He said that he would be here until the end of August and then she needed to find another doctor. She has called all the other OB/ GYNs and was told none of them were accepting new patients. Our daughter is leaving the island to have her child in the states. Very sad.

nforbes---you have to contact Dr. Miller's office (I'm still trying to get them to answer) to get your records.

I also heard he was leaving due to his mothers illness. Its to bad he has to go.
Par for the course down here. get good doctors and off they go.

FWIW, we just had a baby and although we had him up in DC we used Dr. Briscoe for our prenatal care down there. My wife was very happy with his care, he is a good doctor. In true island fashion he was often 30 minutes late for appointments but we were very happy with the care he provided. We felt bad leaving him to have the baby in DC but we had a very difficult time getting pregnant and wanted to make sure we did everything we could in the event something went wrong. The inability of the hospital to guarantee an epidural was a dealbreaker. We had a 10lb 9oz baby and without an epidural my wife may have been in so much pain that a c-section would've been necessary which we wanted to avoid. Dr. Briscoe was adamant that we write to those in charge at the hospital pointing out the problem with not being able to guarantee an epidural.

Losing doctor's is not a good thing...

Sean

I have recently relocated from Northern California. I am a Certified Nurse Midwife/ Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner. I have over 15 years Women's Health Nursing Experience and 7 years as a Certified Nurse Midwife/ Nurse Practitioner. I have started to provide Women's Health Care Services in Dr. Prasad's office in Beeston Hill. I am very excited to provide these services that are so desperately needed, especially after Dr. Miller's office has closed. Please feel free to call the office at 340 778-7788.

Shannan Calhoon, CNM/ARNP
Providing Women's Health Care Services for Women of All Ages

4000 Beeston Hill Medical Center, Suite 1
Christiansted, VI 00820
340 778-7788

My name is Lynette I visited Ms. Shannan Calhoon for prenatal care she is a very good CNM/ARNP . I was very satisfied with her services.
When you call other ob's offices they do say there not taking new patience that so sad it leaves many women without the proper prenatal care. What are we suppose to do? Shannon was taking new patience and she knows exactly how to treat them! Thank you very much
Ms. Calhoon

Hi Folks,

Two weeks ago we delivered a healthy baby boy here on St. Croix. We had the option of delivering the child on the mainland or anywhere in the VI or PR. We chose JFL Hospital's facilities here on St. Croix because we liked their labor and delivery, post partum and nursery units.
Labor and Delivery and Post Partum are equipped with comfortable private en suite rooms. The nursery is also equipped with neo natal units . We visited the facility twice before delivering and found the staff to be very nice and welcoming unlike St. Thomas. We delivered via c section as the baby was breach. The OR staff were outstanding, the Nursery staff were outstanding,and the Post Partum staff were outstanding. I feel we received more personal attentive care than we would have on the mainland. It was a wonderful experience and as the 'father' the staff made me feel welcome at every stage of the process. Kudos to them!! The pre admissions process was rather disorganized but par for the course on the island.

My wife had huge concerns regarding the ability to receive an epidural if we were to deliver vaginally. There has been an on going rumor that epidurals are not available 24 hours a day. This caused great stress for us however we found it to be just that - a RUMOR. In coordination with our OB/GYN and the anathesiologist's on Island we were guaranteed an epidural unless there were extenuating circumstances like a bus crash.

We couldn't be happier. Well done JFLH and well done St. Croix and all the wonderful people here!!!!

Daddy Alfonz

Congratulations Daddy Alfonz on your new baby boy! Congrats to Mom also. Kim

I adore Dr. Treasure. Sure, there is often a long wait...but I have been very happy with her as a gyno (I have no OB needs). And the nurses and reception staff are lovely.

I too was concerned about not being able to receive an epidural at the hospital on island. There is so much conflicting information about having an epidural on island. I have the ability to travel to the main land fairly easy, so that was always an option.
I did my own research on the "epidural availability" and found it TOTALLY UNTRUE. You can absolutely receive an epidural. There are three docs who are able to give one to you (Dr. Davies, Dr. Bumann, and one other). My husband and I talked to Dr. Bumann before labor to double check that that I could receive an epi if needed. He is/was wonderful and took the time to explain how to procedure works and eased our minds about the availability. I'm not sure how this horrible rumor got started but it is simply not true. I guess if there was some huge catastrophe on island and all three anaesthesiologist were unable to preform on epidural you may not get one....but what are the chances? The same would be true at any major "main-land" hospital.
I've heard about so many pregnant ladies traveling back to the main land to labor which I think is a shame. . I delivered last month and personally had a wonderful experience! Everything went on without a hitch...The hospital staff at JLH is wonderful! The only trouble we had during the entire process was the admin upon pre-registering. I would recommend to anyone to stay here to have their children. I've seen three deliveries on the main land and would much rather stay here. You really receive more "one-on-one" attention from the nursing staff. If you are concerned I would recommend to call Dr Bumann's office and talk to him directly.

Dr Bumann is the only doctor who does epidurals, when he is on island.

There is a lot of conflicting information on the epidural issue and my understanding is the situation has recently changed.

When this thread was started last year there was only one doctor who did epidural's. The source for this information was Dr. Briscoe who told us this when we were seeing him for pre-natal care. I understand that he was very good at being on call and administering the epidural when needed. However if he was off island you were out of luck. This happened to a friend of mine who had an immensly painful back birth without the epidural she would've chosen to have had it been available.

However, as we are now pregnant again we have learned that the situation has changed. The hospital has trained a second anisthesiologist in administering epidurals. Again my source for this is Dr. Briscoe, we asked him during one of our appointments. He also mentioned that they were training a third. With 2 or 3 qualified anisthesiologists available to give an epidural we are now comfortable having our second child here on island.

Sean

Interesting article about epidural service provided in the states.

http://www.womensweb.ca/pregnancy/birth/epidural.php

Especially "Many smaller and rural hospitals, however, are choosing not to offer epidurals because they simply can't afford to keep an anesthesiologist on staff full time".

Juan Luis is a small rural hospital and there are not the resources.

If anesthesiologists are pushed too hard to provide extra hours we can assume there can be repercussions.

Like Sean says

"Losing doctors is not a good thing"