Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 3:45 p.m. to include comments from Delaware City Council representative Linsey Griffith.
DELAWARE — The Ohio Attorney General’s Office says it does not have the legal authority to enforce the 2005 affiliation agreement that local officials hoped could preserve inpatient maternity services at Grady Memorial Hospital.
The official statement to Delaware City Council ends weeks of speculation over whether the state might intervene before the unit closes Friday.
In a letter dated Thursday to Delaware City Council, Deputy Attorney General Erik Clark said the office reviewed the city’s resolution passed on June 22 that asked the Attorney General’s office to enforce a 2005 affiliation agreement that identifies obstetrics as a core service at Grady Memorial Hospital.
The resolution expressed concern about the closure’s potential impact on maternal and infant health, emergency response capacity, healthcare workforce stability and access to care throughout Delaware County and surrounding communities.
However, in the letter, Clark said Ohio law does not give the Attorney General authority to enforce post-closing contractual obligations contained in affiliation agreements between healthcare entities and community organizations.
“The enforcement of such agreements typically falls within the purview of the parties to the contract and may be pursued through civil remedies in the courts if a breach is alleged,” Clark wrote.
“Our office’s authority is limited to statutory and regulatory matters as defined by Ohio law and does not expressly extend to compelling compliance with private contractual obligations unless a specific statute provides such enforcement power.”
Instead, the office encouraged the parties involved to continue working together.
“We encourage all parties to engage in constructive dialogue and explore collaborative solutions that prioritize the health and safety of Delaware County residents,” Clark wrote. “We remain committed to supporting public health and ensuring that Ohioans have access to safe and timely healthcare.”
‘Not my problem’
Delaware City Council member and certified professional midwife Linsey Griffith, who authored the resolution requesting the Attorney General’s intervention, criticized both the timing and substance of Thursday’s letter.
“Honestly, I am surprised Deputy Clark even bothered to respond,” Griffith said. “As evidenced by the response coming one day before the closure, the Ohio Attorney General was as uninterested in taking up this issue as the city and county leadership.”
Griffith said the response reflects what she views as a broader failure by elected officials to prioritize healthcare alongside Delaware County’s rapid growth.
“This attitude of ‘not my problem’ and the policy of nonintervention this city, county and state has when it comes to the health and safety of its most vulnerable citizens — newborn babies — is vile,” she said.
“It is our elected leaders’ duty to ensure that adequate healthcare is just as available as residential and commercial development, and our policy should be that it is just as well incentivized by the city and county,” Griffith said.
“If they don’t, this will affect our health and our economy long term.”
An answered question
The Attorney General’s response answers one of the central legal questions surrounding OhioHealth’s decision to close Grady’s inpatient maternity unit.
Since OhioHealth announced June 10 that labor and delivery services would end July 31, local officials, community members and former Grady leaders have argued the 2005 affiliation agreement requires the health system to maintain core hospital services.
Earlier this month, former Grady attorney Jonathan Lewis publicly urged the Attorney General’s Office to intervene, arguing the agreement remains legally enforceable despite the dissolution of the Healthcare Foundation of Delaware County, which was originally tasked with monitoring OhioHealth’s compliance.
The Attorney General’s Office does not address Lewis’s legal arguments in Thursday’s letter. Instead, it concludes that regardless of whether the agreement remains enforceable, the office itself does not have statutory authority to enforce it.
OhioHealth has consistently maintained that it has the legal authority to close the unit, and has said declining birth volumes and the availability of higher-level maternity care at Dublin Methodist and Riverside Methodist hospitals drove the decision.
Grady’s inpatient maternity unit is scheduled to close Friday, leaving Delaware County without a hospital-based labor and delivery unit.
