Implementation of Virtual Antenatal and Postnatal Urgent Midwifery Visits: Evaluation of a Quality Improvement Initiative

Nora Drummond (), Joanne Bailey, Christina Majszak and Ruth Zielinski
Additional contact information
Nora Drummond: School of Nursing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Joanne Bailey: University of Michigan Health—Midwifery Service, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Christina Majszak: University of Michigan Health—Midwifery Service, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Ruth Zielinski: School of Nursing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 7, 1-8

Abstract: Women seeking care during the perinatal period often face delays or long waits at healthcare facilities due to lack of providers and/or resources, leading to sub-optimal outcomes. We implemented a program whereby patients with concerns could receive same-day care virtually from a midwife rather than presenting to the clinic or hospital for care. Implementation strategies included virtual training, a staged increase in patient volume, and frequent communication between the midwives via text, email, and monthly meetings. Virtual visits included a variety of complaints, the five most common being to establish care, first-trimester bleeding, nausea and vomiting, mental health concerns, and postnatal breast problems. There was a threefold increase in virtual visits during the first 6 months with 92% of patients not requiring urgent face-to-face follow-up. Midwives were able to provide high-quality telehealth care that met the patients’ needs and decreased the demand on hospital-based services. With the growing ubiquity of mobile phones and internet access, this strategy may be effective in providing quality care while decreasing demands on physical infrastructure. More research is needed to assess acceptability in other contexts. Reproducibility in low-resource settings may be limited if women lack access to video conferencing on phones or laptops.

Keywords: antenatal; postnatal; urgent care; virtual visits; telehealth; midwifery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/7/903/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/7/903/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:7:p:903-:d:1432550

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().