Description

OnCall Connect Pregnancy & Post-Partum Support Program was born out of a five-year collaborative partnership between the State of Illinois, OSF OnCall and four Federally Qualified Health Centers in Illinois. The program delivers education and check-in questions to mothers through an application on a smart device specific to where the mother is in her pregnancy or post-partum journey. Patients also self-report blood pressure. A chat function allows the mother to ask questions, express concerns and have ongoing connectivity to discuss their pregnancy and postpartum needs with OB nurses 24/7/365 with any concerning responses enabling triage with escalation to an OB-trained APP as appropriate. Patients are also able to receive virtual lactation visits and virtual prenatal care as requested. This connectivity has led to high patient engagement, positive net promoter scores, improved patient navigation and care coordination, and many powerful patient stories! In addition, this program offers patients the chance to connect with a Digital Health Navigator to a Social Drivers of Health assessment both prenatally and post-partum. The DHNs assist with referral to local community-based organizations to ensure critical non-clinical needs are met and whole-person care is provided. The program was developed with scalability in mind and has been able to be deployed in rural areas experiencing health care closures. Since August 2022, almost 40% (2902 of the 7398 patients) of patients receiving outreach have enrolled. Formal IRB-approved research is underway and soon available. 

Session Takeaways: 

1. Collaboration with digital health navigators embedded in our communities is key to addressing social drivers of health 

2. Bringing healthcare to women when and where they need it. Having a team available 24/7/365 via chat/app/phone is what patients need/want. 

3. Important to be able to pivot with feedback from the patient population. We have made several optimizations to meet the needs of our patients.

Speaker:  

Kate Johnson, RN, BSN, MSN, Digital Care Manager for Women's Services, OSF OnCall Connect