Ascension Florida is using grant funding from the Florida Department of Health to expand a Maternal Health Navigator program. The goal is to improve health outcomes for moms and their babies. The focus is on marginalized families with pressing socioeconomic needs.
Through the program, navigators in Ascension Florida's Jacksonville and Pensacola markets offer the women wraparound services to address barriers they face to having a healthy pregnancy and delivery. Ascension Florida is offering the navigation assistance at no cost to the moms from pregnancy through their baby's first year of life.
Ascension Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Syed Jafri says in addition to those navigation services, the program "is dedicated to educating communities about the importance of early prenatal care and consistent prenatal appointment attendance. We are partnering with external organizations within these communities to strengthen our collective advocacy for patients and eliminate barriers to care."
Socioeconomic impacts
According to a June 30, 2024, report in the journal Cureus, there are worse infant mortality rates in Florida counties with poor socioeconomic indicators than in those with average or good indicators. The study's authors wrote that "many factors can contribute to high infant mortality rates in certain counties, including income inequality, access to and quality of health care, race/ethnicity, obesity, and disadvantaged socioeconomic status."
Long concerned about the impact of such social determinants on mom and baby health outcomes, Ascension Florida's Pensacola market started its Maternal Health Navigator program in 2021. Under that initiative, navigator Kate Peabody identifies socioeconomic needs of expectant and new moms and their babies and works with community partners to address them.
Based on the success of that program, Ascension Florida secured grants from the Florida Department of Health to expand the Pensacola initiative and to replicate it in Jacksonville. The health care provider received a three-year, $3 million grant for use in Pensacola and a three-year, $7.8 million grant for Jacksonville.
Pensacola and Jacksonville markets
The Ascension Sacred Heart subsystem includes five hospitals in Pensacola and surrounding northwest Florida communities, and the Ascension St. Vincent's subsystem includes four hospitals in Jacksonville and surrounding northeast Florida communities.
Using the grant dollars, Ascension Sacred Heart is building out its program to include a social worker, patient navigator and program supervisor. Ascension St. Vincent's has the same staffing. Prior to the program's July 1 launch, all the new hires completed training modules on their roles. This included instruction on providing culturally sensitive care to ensure they can effectively support patients from diverse backgrounds, says Jafri.
Under the program, Ascension Sacred Heart and Ascension St. Vincent's conduct a comprehensive assessment of all expectant and new moms to evaluate their risk factors and barriers to care. Using the results, the Ascension Florida systems identify patients who are at heightened risk for adverse pregnancy or birth outcomes. Those women receive a referral to connect with the navigator program.
Over virtual connections and in-person, the navigators talk with the patients to determine their needs and connect them to wraparound services, including housing, food and transportation. The navigators also ensure the women have the medical devices they need. They also can connect the women with dietitians, lactation experts and behavioral health providers. The navigators focus on health literacy and patient education throughout this process.
The navigators also conduct outreach, educating community members on prenatal and postnatal care. They partner with community organizations to increase social services available to moms in need and they advocate for their patients.
Jafri says the program is tracking the health outcomes of moms enrolled in the Maternal Health Navigator program and of their babies to monitor results and make improvements. Among the measures tracked are premature birth rate, babies' birth weight, and incidence of health complications for moms and babies.
In Jacksonville, the navigators work closely with a maternal health initiative, Brighter Beginnings. That free education program is offered by Ascension St. Vincent's faith community nursing team to expectant and new moms.
Jafri says of the Maternal Health Navigator effort, "This collaboration strengthens our ability to deliver comprehensive maternal health services and address barriers to care."