Staff walked out, and now patients want answers.
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BY: ROSEMARY SCOTT
Patients of the Nashville Center for Reproductive Health were left with more questions than answers when the clinic suddenly closed during the first week of April with little explanation.
An anonymous clinic staff member told Nashville’s Channel News 5 that on April 4, clinic staff staged a walkout after receiving letter over email from administration that stated their paychecks would be late. The letter cited “unforeseen financial circumstances” and told staff their checks would be paid “as quickly as possible” once the money is available.
Since then, patients have struggled to get in contact with clinic owner and director Dr. Jaime Vasquez, despite some patients having paid in advance for treatments. Other patients also have sensitive information like medical records, and in some cases, embryos, stored at the facility.
Patients Left in Limbo
It is unclear whether the facility will reopen. Some patients, like April Moore of Murfreesboro, TN, arrived at their appointments over the last week to find the doors locked with no staff inside to answer their calls.
Moore told Inside Reproductive Health she stood outside the clinic on Thurs., April 11 with several other patients who were there either for appointments or to follow up on unreturned calls.
The next day, Moore said her husband received a call from Vasquez informing him his wife’s procedure scheduled for later that day would be canceled. After being informed that the procedure had actually been scheduled for the day before, Vasquez hung up the phone, Moore said.
Moore said she will likely return to her previous provider, Kindbody, despite having to make the trip from Murfreesboro to Atlanta.
“At 40, time is not in my favor, and this [has] wasted more time,” Moore said. “Now, I have to start back over from the beginning, because I don’t even have the test results I need to move forward again.”
The Nashville Center for Reproductive health has made no mention of the office closure on its social media and has responded to negative reviews on its business pages with canned responses that don’t address any particular situation. The center has continued to post on its Facebook page as normal, and many patients have commented on the company’s most recent post for World Health Awareness Month on April 8 asking for answers.
This led to patients using the comment section to help one another by suggesting other doctors with openings and linking to Support for families of CRH, a Facebook group formed for those affected by the clinic’s closure to connect with one another.
Rumors of Bankruptcy
Kristyn Rogers-Escudero of Clarkesville, TN started fertility treatments at the Center for Reproductive Health in February. She told Inside Reproductive Health that it took over a month of back-and-forth to schedule her next appointment, and clinic staff blamed the lack of availability on updates to the facility.
On Monday, April 8, Rogers-Escudero received a text from the center canceling her appointment for the next day. After calling and emailing the facility with no response, she stopped by the center on Tuesday while she was in the area for work. Rogers-Escudero stated that she is familiar with property improvement in her line of work as a commercial property manager, and she did not see any signs of construction or improvements being made to the facility.
The door was unlocked, but no staff answered Rogers-Escudero when she called and rang the desk bell for help.
As Rogers-Escudero continued through the building, Vasquez came out of his office to speak with her. The day before, Channel News 5 reported news of the closure, including a patient who stated they heard the center’s receptionist say the clinic was bankrupt. Vasquez dismissed these claims to Rogers-Ecudero, calling them “rumors” and emphasizing that once staff returned, all would be well.
“He said, ‘We are not broke. Everything is fine here…We just need to get people back in the office so they can answer the phone,” Rogers-Ecudero said.
When she asked Vasquez if she could have a copy of her medical records before she left to take to her new provider, he directed her to the secretary. When Rogers-Ecudero pointed out there were no other employees in the building, Vasquez told her he couldn’t provide the records and asked her to leave.
No bankruptcy filings for The Center for Reproductive Health were found as of this writing.
How did this happen?
There are myriad reasons a fertility clinic could close its doors, Robert Goodman, VP Healthcare, MidCap Advisors, told Inside Reproductive Health. He stated reasons for closing could be financial, like poor financial management, an excess of debt or a slowdown post-COVID.
“Why would a practice close this abruptly?... I think it certainly can be poor management in terms of their finances. They could be over leveraged with too much debt…or maybe they overpriced themselves,” Goodman said.
Goodman stated the abrupt nature of the closure is uncommon in the field, even due to financial reasons, and it could also be a result of embezzlement or theft by someone at the center.
“Is this typical? The answer is no, no it isn’t…unless there's some big bombshell [that you haven’t uncovered yet].”
Goodman stated that the closure could also be due to declining market share caused by competition in the area.
According to the most recent CDC data, the clinic has at least one major competitor in the city. In 2021, the Nashville Center for Reproductive Health logged 187 total cycles, according to CDC data. Nashville Fertility Center, the only other Nashville clinic the CDC listed in 2021, logged 1375 total cycles, resulting in 374 total infants born.
Regardless of the cause, the negative effects of the clinic’s closure have spread beyond the center’s walls and into the lives of patients.
“I'm thankful that I wasn’t super far along in my fertility journey with [the Center for Reproductive Health], but I do feel very sad for the other couples that are having to deal with this…I just hope they get justice,” Rogers-Escudero said.
The Center for Reproductive Health did not respond to Inside Reproductive Health’s request for comment.
The content and themes expressed within the article are that of the news. The advertiser does not have editorial control over the content of this article, and Inside Reproductive Health maintains full editorial independence. The views and opinions expressed in this article do not represent the views of the Advertiser or of Inside Reproductive Health.
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