Higher-risk pregnant patients in Tacoma lost access to affordable OB/GYN care on August 1, after Community Health Care shut down its Women's Health Clinic at the Hilltop Regional Health Center.

The closure is the direct fallout of CHC losing its family-medicine residency program at St. Joseph Medical Center on July 1. Without residents rotating through the hospital, two contracted groups that provided round-the-clock obstetric call coverage refused to continue, leaving CHC's two OB/GYNs unable to cover patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"They don't just disappear. We didn't create these pregnant patients. We just take care of them," Dr. Carri Jo Timmer, CHC's program director and director of medical education, told The News Tribune in a July 28 interview.

Who is affected

In 2025, CHC provided care to more than 54,000 patients across its five clinics in Tacoma, Lakewood, and Spanaway. At St. Joseph specifically, CHC providers cared for 1,618 patients across all services and performed 600 labor and deliveries plus postpartum evaluations and newborn exams.

CHC has been working to transfer Women's Health Clinic patients to other OB/GYN practices.

But Timmer warned in a mid-July email to the News Tribune that no other office has capacity to absorb all displaced patients, and that some may face a break in care.

The closure affects only the higher-risk OB/GYN specialty clinic. CHC family medicine physicians will continue seeing low-risk OB patients and delivering babies at St. Joseph.

How it happened

The chain of events began in 2025, when Franciscan Medical Group, part of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, ended its contract with CHC to share OB call coverage at St. Joseph.

CHC then contracted with the OB Hospitalist Group, a VMFH-affiliated entity, for coverage tied to resident teaching.

When St. Joseph president Deepak Devasthali ended the hospital's affiliation with CHC's residency program effective July 1, that contract also terminated. Neither Franciscan Medical Group nor the OB Hospitalist Group would agree to continue coverage without residents present, according to Timmer.

VMFH declined to comment on the clinic closure. In a statement earlier this year, the health system said it needed to dedicate limited capacity at St. Joseph's Level III NICU to higher-acuity newborn care.

Statewide picture

CHC's residency program, launched in 2014, graduated 55 board-certified family physicians before closing this year. Dr. Grace Shih, director of the WWAMI Family Medicine Residency Network, confirmed the closure to The Seattle Times, noting the program typically graduated eight residents per year.

Washington state now has about 445 family medicine residency positions across 25 programs, down from a peak of 490 in 2023.

MultiCare Health System absorbed CHC's six remaining third-year residents after the St. Joseph affiliation ended.

What's next

Timmer said she is still trying to find a way to revive the program. The odds are long. Any future revival would require a partnership with MultiCare or Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, she said, and no negotiations are publicly scheduled.