Women's Health Center at SMC launches TeamBirth
Mar. 28—The new Women's Health Center at Stillwater Medical Center launched a new initiative for their labor and delivery department Wednesday, with the goal to provide better care before, during and after childbirth.
More than 30 SMC employees celebrated TeamBirth, a new perinatal — the time immediately before and after the birth of a baby — health plan for women and infants in the Maternal Child Health Unit.
TeamBirth is part of a statewide initiative called Oklahoma Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative, said Susan Jones manager at the SMC's Maternal Child Health Unit.
The launch is one of the new patient experiences to improve perinatal care at the new Women's Health Center, which opened in January. The center has an extensive birth center, in addition to new business suites and additional medical facilities.
Key parts of TeamBirth include team huddles and a shared planning board.
"TeamBirth ensures people giving birth and the clinicians caring for them to have shared input and understanding in decisions during labor and delivery and postpartum care," Jones said. "These practices are supported through regular team huddles involving the birthing person, nurse, delivering provider and members support team."
Jones said the use of a white board adds much to the birthing experience and helps "promote the roles of the patient, nurse and provider as members of the care team with equally valuable input for decision making."
TeamBirth offers the patient a voice to share their preferences, symptoms and subjective experiences so that TeamBirth can integrate that information into clinical data that inform patient care plans.
"(TeamBirth) keeps everyone on the same page," Jones said.
TeamBirth will also help set shared expectations for the next planned evaluation.
TeamBirth is "a patient satisfier," Jones said, an initiative that will provide more patient satisfaction.
"Many of the hospitals in Oklahoma are currently implementing it or have already been through the process and are currently using it in practice," she said.
During the launch Wednesday, Trisha Short, clinical implementation specialist of the Delivery Decisions Initiative at Ariadne Labs, spoke about the work Ariadne Labs is doing to close gaps between theory and clinical practice. Ariadne Labs has also partnered with Harvard University to promote TeamBirth.
Barbara Barbara O'Brien, director at OPQIC, also spoke at the launch Wednesday.
The state's perinatal collaborative (OPQIC) provides leadership and engages interested stakeholders, seeking to improve health outcomes for Oklahoma women and infants. It uses evidence-based practice guidelines and quality improvement processes.
OPQIC's goal is to work with Oklahoma birthing hospitals and perinatal care providers of all types, improving "perinatal care of Oklahoma mothers and newborns."
Oklahoma is the first in the United States to implement TeamBirth across all birthing hospitals in the state, Jones said. It's supported by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration and the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
"Currently, 34 hospitals in the state have implemented TeamBirth out of the 44 birthing hospitals in Oklahoma as of this time," Jones said.
