Approach #2: Mayo Clinic OB Nest
In 2011, the Mayo Clinic Obstetric Division partnered with 2 other Mayo Clinic divisions, the Center for Innovation and the Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, to redesign prenatal care for low-risk expectant mothers.Pregnant women and their obstetric health care teams (including obstetricians, certified nurse midwives, registered nurses, and clinical support staff) were convened to develop a novel model of prenatal care.4 The goal of this collaboration centered on:
- creating an evidence-driven prenatal care model for low-risk expectant women designed by relevant stakeholders
- focusing on meeting the on-demand needs of expectant mothers
- integrating innovative 21st century technology, and
- reducing the burden of prescheduled, low-value office visits.
Exploratory efforts to develop a novel care program. Based on feedback from the collaboration and guided by these goals, 141 expectant mothers participated in 19 different experiments, enabling the health care team to understand the impact of changing various components of prenatal care.
The experiments included integration of home monitoring (home fetal Doppler devices, drop-in fetal Doppler stations, home blood pressure monitoring devices), technology-enhanced communication with obstetric team members (video chats, tummy photos, virtual prenatal clinic appointments, proactive calls), and social media engagement (secure online prenatal care community).
Recommendations for the final components of OB Nest were based on feasibility and the potential impact on care. The recommendations included decreasing scheduled clinic appointments from 14 to 8, providing home monitoring devices to measure maternal blood pressure and fetal heart rate, establishing OB Nest virtual connected care visits with a registered nurse, and offering a secure online community of expectant mothers.
Trial assessed program’s efficacy, safety, satisfaction. A mixed-methods randomized controlled trial subsequently was conducted to evaluate the components of OB Nest.6 The trial included 300 pregnant women who were randomly assigned to standard prenatal care as recommended by ACOG or to OB Nest care.
OB Nest care consisted of 8 scheduled clinic appointments, 6 planned virtual (phone or online) connected care visits with a registered nurse dedicated to OB Nest, home monitoring of blood pressure (with a home digital sphygmomanometer) and fetal heart rate, and access to an online prenatal care community designated for OB Nest participants.
While publication of the trial results currently is pending, the OB Nest program appears to safely and effectively decrease the number of scheduled prenatal care visits for low-risk expectant mothers while improving the overall patient experience. OB Nest care now is offered as one of several options for low-risk expectant mothers at Mayo Clinic.
Additional avenues of study. Studies evaluating the impact of OB Nest in various nonacademic settings are now underway. Also under review is the potential cost savings of OB Nest as related to the productive lives of expectant mothers, while prenatal care safety is maintained.
The focus shift from a sick to a wellness perspective, stakeholder inclusion in the program design, and the integration of home monitoring tools are all major contributing factors to the success of OB Nest.
Continue to: Approach #3: Prisma Health utilizes mobile app technology...