Why is Jackson South’s maternity ward closing? Here’s what the CEO told leaders
The top executive of Miami-Dade’s public hospital system has explained to top state and county leaders why plans are in the works to shutter the labor and delivery unit at Jackson South, which provides care to patients in an underserved part of the county.
Longtime Jackson Health System CEO Carlos Migoya, in a Tuesday memo to the chairman of the board that oversees the public hospital system, attributed the maternity ward’s upcoming fall closure as a “data-driven” decision that was made following nearly a decade of declining births at Jackson South, while demand for other services has ticked up.
The memo was also sent to U.S. Sens.Ashley Moody and Rick Scott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and other South Florida officials and was provided to the Miami Herald.
“As stewards of our public healthcare resources, we have a fundamental responsibility to continually evaluate how we operate — ensuring that our decisions make the most sense from a business perspective, while also upholding our longstanding mission to this community,” Migoya’s memo reads. “Failing to adapt to these evolving demands — and being proactive in an uncertain healthcare landscape — would be irresponsible and a disservice to the people who count on us for care.”
Patients will still be able to see OB-GYNs at Jackson South for prenatal care once the hospital’s maternity ward closes in September, the Herald has confirmed.However, once the ward closes Sept. 1, they will need to go elsewhere to deliver their baby.
Jackson South, located at 9333 SW 152nd St., is one of seven hospitals that are part of Jackson Health System, the county’s healthcare safety net, and provides care to everyone, even if they can’t pay and don’t have insurance. Of those, Jackson South is one of three hospitals in the public hospital network that runs a maternity ward.It primarily serves patients who live in Perrine, Richmond Heights, Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay and other parts of southern Miami-Dade.
Why is Jackson South maternity ward closing?
In the memo, Migoya describes Jackson South as a “go-to” hospital for people in south Miami-Dade that has “experienced tremendous growth over the last decade.” The hospital offers ER and specialty services, including oncology, neurosurgery and cardiac care. Its labor and delivery unit, which has 23 patient rooms and two operating rooms, is managed by 26 full-time employees.
He says the area the hospital serves is seeing more demand for cardiology, interventional radiology, colorectal surgery, urology and other surgical subspecialties. But demand for maternity care at Jackson South has “continued to drop year after year, culminating with only 495 babies being delivered at Jackson South” in the 2024 fiscal year — “just over one a day,” he wrote.
“Frankly, this is not the best use of finite resources — in staffing, space, and services provided,” he wrote in the memo, noting that each Jackson hospital tailors its services based on the community’s needs and that the area Jackson South serves saw a 12% decline in total births from 2015to2024, with a “projected decline of at least as much over the next 10 years.”
Asked whether Jackson needs approval from the county or its governing body to shutter the maternity ward, Jackson Health spokesperson Krysten Brenlla on Wednesday told the Herald that “operational decisions of this nature are managed by Jackson’s executive leadership.”
“These types of service adjustments are made routinely in response to the evolving healthcare landscape,” Brenlla said, noting that while operational decisions are managed by Jackson’s executive leadership, there is a “focus on keeping the Public Health Trust,” which oversees the public hospital system, “and the County Commission appropriately informed throughout the process.”
What’s not explicitly mentioned in Migoya’s memo is that laborand delivery units are costly to operate and often cause hospitals to lose money. The services offered through maternity wards also tend to see low reimbursement rates, unlike cardiac care, orthopedic surgery and other specialized services.
The closure of Jackson South’s labor and delivery unit is the latest in South Florida and comes at a time when many hospitals across the country have closed their maternity wards, with administrators often citing costs and staffing issues. Last year, North Shore Medical Center in North Miami-Dade closed its critical but costly labor and delivery and neonatal units to cut costs.
The Herald on Wednesday asked Jackson for birth data of its other hospitals. The hospital system said it’s in the process of compiling the data.
What other Miami-Dade hospitals offer labor and delivery units?
The nearest hospitals to Jackson South that have labor and delivery units are Kendall’s Baptist Hospital and South Miami Hospital. Both are owned by Baptist Health South Florida, the region’s largest not-for-profit healthcare system.
Jackson’s two other public hospitals that run maternity wards are Jackson North Medical Center in North Miami-Dade and the Women’s Hospital at Jackson Memorial in Miami, both of which are more than 20 miles awayfrom Jackson South. Migoya says the two hospitals have capacity for more patients and that the health system is “passionately committed to growing our maternity services” at the two hospitals.
Other Miami-Dade hospitals with maternity wards include HCA Florida’s Kendall Hospital, West Kendall Baptist Hospital, Baptist Health Homestead Hospital and Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach.
“Seizing new opportunities sometimes requires we make tough but necessary decisions to prioritize our community’s highest needs within our limited space,” wrote Migoya, who has served as Jackson’s CEO for more than a decade. “This approach has led to proven successes throughout Jackson — and we will continue to operate in this thoughtful, data-driven manner.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 1:52 PM.
