The Laborist First and the Level III Certifications, 2012–2019

2012 – 2019 · Certified standing verified to October 2028

The laborist first: The strongest dated advancement claim in Mishawaka's record is the health system's own, made in its certification release of 2 December 2019 and printed here at that strength: "In 2012, Mishawaka Medical Center became the first hospital in the region to offer a laborist program, providing 24/7 in-house obstetric-gynecological services." The laborist model — an obstetrician-gynecologist employed to be in the hospital around the clock, rather than on call from home — was the national obstetric safety movement's central reform of those years, and on the system's account Mishawaka's hospital was the region's first adopter. No contradicting record was reached; the claim stands as the system's, in its own release, unretracted in the release's current form.

The certification: The same release carries the dated settlement. In 2014 the system was, on its account, one of the few in the state to partner with the Indiana State Department of Health to pilot the Level of Care III certification process for perinatal care; in 2017 it developed its Maternal Fetal Transport team; and in December 2019 the state department certified the Mishawaka Medical Center as Obstetric Level of Care III and Neonatal Level of Care III — in the system's words, "validating a level of care that has been provided for decades." Level III, in the state's framework, is the level of the regional perinatal center: care for complex maternal conditions and for infants at the edge of viability, with the specialists and the neonatal intensive care that the designation requires. The certification, unlike the claims tested below, verifies from the state's side: the Department of Health's Perinatal Levels of Care list of February 2026 carries "Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center, Mishawaka" among the state's Level III facilities, its asterisk denoting Perinatal Center certification, expiring October 2028. The unit's scale, at recruiting-paper strength: a twelve-bed Level III neonatal intensive care unit, within a thirty-eight-bed mother-baby unit with eight labor beds, and more than a thousand obstetric cases a year.

The names: The release quotes Amy Murray, the system's administrative director of Maternal Child Services, and Chris Karam, styled in the release as president of the Mishawaka Medical Center — the state hospital service report of the same era styles him the hospital's administrator, and the two titles stand unreconciled, a small divergence printed here because the file prints titles as their records give them.

Sources:

1. Saint Joseph Health System, release of 2 December 2019, current form as updated 28 August 2025 (the laborist first, quoted; the 2014 pilot partnership; the 2017 transport team; the Obstetric and Neonatal Level III certifications; the Murray and Karam quotations and titles).
2. Indiana Department of Health, Perinatal Levels of Care list, February 2026 (Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center, Mishawaka: Level III, Perinatal Center certification, expiring October 2028).
3. Saint Joseph Health System anesthesia recruiting record, current November 2026 (the twelve-bed Level III neonatal intensive care unit; the mother-baby unit; obstetric case volume).
4. Indiana State Department of Health, Hospital Service Report 2016 (the administrator styling, for the title divergence).