Three hospitals have shared plans to close or restructure their day care facilities over the last month.
Most recently, Fredericksburg, Va.-based Mary Washington Hospital, part of Fredericksburg-based Mary Washington Healthcare, shared a notice with employees that Kids’ Station will be closing its doors in the next few months, Fox 5 reported Feb. 16.
The lease for the Kids’ Station building, which is owned by the hospital, is up, and the hospital has plans to repurpose the building for potential clinical purposes, the publication reported. The day care center’s operator, KinderCare, said it was unable to find a new location.
Following the closure plans, a petition to extend the lease has received almost 1,500 signatures. The petition claims the day care will close by the end of May.
“The decision to close Kid’s Station will have a profound impact on the families of MWHC associates,” the petition said. “The timing of this decision could not be worse, as it coincides with a well-documented childcare crisis in our area.”
Becker’s has reached out to Mary Washington Healthcare regarding the closure for a statement and will update this story once we have more information.
News of Mary Washington Healthcare’s day care closure comes as Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health is making changes to its day care center offerings.
After entering a strategic partnership with Bright Horizons, an educational support services company, the nonprofit health system is closing its center on Davenport Street in New Haven to consolidate it with day care services at its location on George Street, effective July 1.
“All qualified teachers in good standing will be offered employment through Bright Horizons at their current hourly rate of pay,” a spokesperson for Yale New Haven Health said in a statement shared with Becker’s.
Lutheran Health Network also shared plans to shutter its child care program on its Lutheran Hospital campus in Fort Wayne, Ind.
The health system, also located in Fort Wayne, has kicked off a transitional period for the child care program that will continue until May 31.
“We are supporting each affected employee and their family to make this transition and secure new child care arrangements,” Lutheran Health Network said in a statement shared with The Journal Gazette. “We continually assess the programs we support, and this is one of those times when we need to redirect resources to other programs.”