Fort Worth hospitals will turn to a simple tool to reduce maternal mortality
Seven hospitals in Tarrant County will start using a new system to keep birthing mothers safer and keep parents more informed at every stage of the labor and delivery process.
The protocol, known as TeamBirth, is in use in more than 150 hospitals across the United States and emphasizes using a simple tool: a white board in the hospital delivery room. The board includes information that parents-to-be might otherwise not know, like the names of the nurse and doctor, said Amber Weiseth, TeamBirth director. The board also includes information about the parent’s preferences, such as if the new mother wants immediate skin-to-skin contact with the newborn.
The TeamBirth system emphasizes a three key components to include birthing parents in decisions about their own deliveries, Weiseth said. First, all huddles involving doctors, nurses, and other health care providers happen at the patient’s bedside, and not out in the hallway out of the patient’s earshot. Second, there is has to be clear verbal and written — through the whiteboard — communication between doctor and patient. And lastly, the patient has to be involved in making any decisions about their care, like whether a C-section is appropriate.
United Way announced Thursday that seven Tarrant County hospitals would begin using the TeamBirth system. The hospitals that will begin using the system are JPS Health Network, Baylor Scott and White All Saints Fort Worth, and multiple hospitals with the Texas Health Resources system, including Texas Health Fort Worth, Texas Health Southwest, Texas Health Arlington Memorial, Texas Health HEB and Texas Health Alliance. The system should be up and running at all seven hospitals by January 2025, said Leah King, the president and CEO of United Way of Tarrant County. The hospitals are the first in Texas to start using the TeamBirth system, King said. An eighth hospital in Dallas is also part of the coalition.
The cornerstone of the TeamBirth approach, Weiseth said Thursday, is better communication.
“Has anybody gone to a doctor, and they go out in the hallway, and you know they’re talking about you?” Weiseth asked. “Team Birth doesn’t allow that. We ask that all decisions and conversations be at the bedside by the patient. With them, not about them.”
By improving communication between the birthing parent and the doctor, experts said people giving birth can have safer deliveries where they are better able to advocate for themselves.
“Most of the time when there is a medical error, there’s a communication issue,” said Dr. Angela Chien, the medical director for the Foundation for Health Care Quality. Chien works as an OB/GYN in one of the first hospitals to pilot the program.
In hospitals that have used the protocol, both patients and doctors have said the system has improved communication. About 84% of health care providers said they the process “clarified C-section decision-making,” according to TeamBirth data.
The protocol is the United Way’s second major program to tackle Tarrant County’s high maternal mortality rate. United Way recently announced a partnership with the Child Poverty Action Lab to train Fort Worth residents to be doulas in their communities. More than 100 doulas have been trained through the United Way’s new program, and four trained doulas have been hired through United Way’s program and are now working in Fort Worth.
Both initiatives received funding through the federal COVID assistance program, the American Rescue Plan Act.
This story was originally published May 9, 2024 at 2:18 PM.
