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Tarrant hospitals’ teamwork program prepared to deliver improved maternal health outcomes

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By Fort Worth Report

January 28, 2025

Tarrant County’s health systems are taking steps to improve maternal health outcomes with the official start of a first-in-Texas program.

Seven hospitals within Baylor Scott & White Health, JPS Health Network and Texas Health Resources will launch the TeamBirth initiative starting this week. The initiative is a collaborative process aimed at closing communication gaps and encouraging teamwork between new mothers and health providers.

TeamBirth was announced in May 2024 by United Way of Tarrant County. The organization secured over $2 million to bring the initiative to the region, making it the first in Texas. The initiative comes as Tarrant County’s health leaders have grappled with high rates of infant and maternal mortality in recent years.

Those statistics led health care leaders to investigate solutions through a three-year University of Texas at Arlington study, maternal health coalition, public events, community doulas and now the launch of TeamBirth.

JPS was the first Tarrant County hospital to kick off TeamBirth during a Jan. 27 ceremony with the health system’s staff and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker.

Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital and Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Southwest Fort Worth will implement TeamBirth starting Jan. 28. Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center – Fort Worth, Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Alliance and Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth will begin the day after.

Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford plans to implement the program in early March.

“As someone who practiced pediatrics for a number of years, communication is key to success,” Dr. Karen Duncan, president and CEO of JPS Health Network, said. “As we launch TeamBirth, let us remember that this is more than an initiative. It is a promise that JPS will continue to provide exceptional care to all those we serve.”

TeamBirth requires that a planning white board be shared between the labor and delivery care team and mothers. The planning board will serve to elevate each patient’s birth preferences, outline maternal care plans and track progress for the baby. The program also mandates team huddles throughout the mother’s hospital stay to enhance transparency on her care plan.

Before TeamBirth was implemented, providers would compile the birth plan without including a patient’s input, Pam Gessling, executive director of women and infant services at JPS, said.

“Now, we’re actually supporting the patient and her family members,” she said. “The difference is making her feel like she has a voice, because she does.”

JPS will measure the success of the TeamBirth initiative through surveys provided to patients that will ask them to detail their overall birthing experience, Gessling told the Report.

A Texas Health spokesperson said the health system will monitor similar metrics around patient experience before and after implementation, as well as maternal morbidity and mortality and nulliparous term singleton vertex rates, a measure of the rate of C-sections performed on first-time mothers.

TeamBirth was developed by Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

During clinical trials at four U.S. hospitals, 97% of patients reported having the role they wanted in their childbirth experience, 93% of clinicians felt TeamBirth improved care and 90% of nurses, midwives and obstetricians reported they would recommend the program, according to Ariadne Lab’s website.

TeamBirth has been implemented at hospitals across 17 states, Amber Weiseth, director for the Delivery Decisions Initiative at Ariadne Labs, said.

EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland, Washington, was one of the first hospitals in the U.S. to mandate the program. Dr. Angela Chien, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist at EvergreenHealth, previously said the program helped reshape how she provides care.

Since her election in 2021, Parker has convened a committee of 16 leaders focused on maternal and infant health. As she celebrated JPS’s launch of TeamBirth, Parker said she’s thankful for the “tremendous” amount of work Tarrant County health systems have put in to improve local maternal health outcomes.

“We’re not perfect here — I understand that, but I think the way you care for your most vulnerable, the way you really think about those in labor delivery rooms right now. You’re changing their lives for the better,” she said.

David Moreno is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. His position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact him at [email protected] or @davidmreports.

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

CATEGORIES: HEALTHCARE

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