No plans have been announced for the building. The 10-member Renaissance Women's Group--which still carries the Renaissance name--has moved into offices in north Austin. Last month the group won a $6.9-million judgment against the hospital owner, Universal Health System, for breach of contract.
When the Rollingwood hospital opened back in 1997, the talk had been about the personal touches behind the hospital and its focus on women's health issues. Lady Bird Johnson attended the ribbon cutting. More than 2,000 of Austin's 20,000 babies were delivered there last year.
Now the talk is about inadequate medical reimbursements for women's services. The Renaissance Women's Group will be at the Capitol to support companion bills that will be filed Thursday by Sen. David Cain (D-Dallas) and Rep. David Farabee (D-Wichita Falls) to end gender discrimination.
"We had sympathy for Universal that it was hard to make a women's hospital work in this particular day and age," Margaret Thompson, head of the Renaissance Women's Group, tells GlobeSt.com. "What we don't have sympathy for was that we were promised that they were going to make it work, and we didn't feel like they made an effort."
Company officials from Universal Health Services in Philadelphia had been out of town Wednesday and couldn't comment on the hospital closure. Before the two-year mark had been reached, officials had said they wanted to close the hospital because it was a money loser.
Robin Nunnelly, the chief nurse executive at Renaissance, says the hospital "was a great place--not just because of the building--but because of the employees and the patients and the doctors. We had great people here."
Nunnelly says all Renaissance employees who wanted jobs elsewhere are now working at other hospitals. In addition to obstetrics, Renaissance also performed minor surgery, plastic surgery and some orthopedic procedures.
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