Creating a ‘catalyst’ for greater maternal health with data and early intervention

May 30, 2023

Video

Improving maternal health outcomes

Video transcript

Relaxed music plays. The view glides over a sleek modern medical facility, the Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center. Text appears.

ONSCREEN TEXT: Kansas City, Missouri

A blonde woman, Natalie, shows a mother, Xzavaria, and her infant child a breast pump.

NATALIE: It also has a bag inside, so you can use that. And then it comes with three different cups that you can use.

XZAVARIA: Alright.

Natalie interviews. Text appears.

ONSCREEN TEXT: Natalie Debelak

Community Health, Northland Healthcare Access

NATALIE: I’m the prenatal care coordinator for Sam Rodgers. I meet with every patient to make sure needs and concerns, social needs, any external needs you might have are answered.

Natalie and Xzavaria flip through a book.

NATALIE: I also follow their pregnancies and make sure they're having healthy deliveries.

Natalie unboxes the components of the breast pump.

NATALIE: Electrical component.

XZAVARIA: Okay.

Natalie interviews.

NATALIE: Patient interaction and patient care comes from building personal relationships. I've worked really hard at making sure every patient has my cell phone number.

Xzavaria, a young woman with a pulled back afro, interviews.

ONSCREEN TEXT: Xzavaria Henderson

Patient

XZAVARIA: She has gotten me through a lot of tough times throughout my pregnancy. Everything didn't go according to the plan.

From a first person point of view, an ambulance races down a city street.

XZAVARIA: We ran into a situation where I had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery.

Xzavaria interviews.

XZAVARIA: I get teary eyed talking about it. I went to the bathroom, noticed that I was standing in a puddle of blood. I bled out. They’re wanting to do emergency surgery. But I'm scared and I don't have nobody here.

Natalie sits with Xzavaria.

XZAVARIA: She says, “Z, I'm on my way.” Throughout that whole experience, Natalie, she was just the angel.

Xzavaria interviews.

XZAVARIA: She helped me through everything.

Natalie interviews.

NATALIE: Making sure I'm standing behind them and beside them every step of the way. That comes out in the rental and utility assistance. That comes out in food stamp assistance. The relationships that we have built with them really comes down to a successful future for their child.

A dark-haired woman interviews. Text appears.

ONSCREEN TEXT: Jamie Bruce

UnitedHealthcare

CEO, Community & State Missouri

JAMIE: The state of Missouri has a priority of improving outcomes for maternal health. Missouri has poor outcomes, especially for black and brown communities.

A sign reads, "Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center. Quality Care, Universal Compassion." A man waits on bench in the health center. An employee speaks with a patient in an office.

JAMIE: Sam Rodgers serves a very specific population and was the perfect partner to be able to make sure that we could address that particular population that's a priority. It's important to work with partners like Sam Rodgers and Northland Healthcare Access…

Natalie shows a book to Xzavaria. Jamie interviews.

JAMIE: …because they are the experts in the community. They're the ones that are serving those that live here.

Text appears over a hallway in the health center filled with medical equipment.

ONSCREEN TEXT: UnitedHealthcare Catalyst™ combines local data analysis with community-level collaborations to reduce health disparities.

Text appears over a diagram of a fetus' developmental stages.

ONSCREEN TEXT: The Catalyst model addresses key areas of maternal health in Missouri:

- Low engagement in pre- and post-natal care

- Lack of access to transportation, healthy food and more

- Preterm births and low birth weights

Now a man with glasses interviews. Text appears.

ONSCREEN TEXT: Bob Theis

CEO, Sam Rodgers Health Center

BOB: We want to know if you need housing assistance, utility assistance, if you need food. We want to know whatever your needs are.

A group of boys walk through a hallway. Dental specialists work on a patient's teeth. A sign in five languages hangs in a waiting room. An English sign and a Spanish sign stand in a hallway.

BOB: 84% of our patient population self-identify as minorities. 56% are best served in another language. 46% of our patient population speak Spanish.

Jamie interviews.

JAMIE: Maternal health was a priority for Sam Rodgers, and it was also for us as well.

A patient chats with a receptionist at a check-in desk. An employee discusses a brochure with a patient in her office. Natalie interviews.

NATALIE: Helping over 400 mothers in the city, and families, and reaching them where they're at and coming alongside them has been the greatest challenge. We have a lot of patients that have fear of healthcare.

Natalie chats with Xzavaria and shows her the breast pump as she continues to interview in voiceover.

NATALIE: We're trying to break those barriers so that when they deliver, that they're on time, and that they know what's available to them so that we see a healthy delivery result. It's empowering women in our city.

The view gazes over the health center.

NATALIE: I know that women, through Sam Rodgers, are getting the care that they need.

Tears fill Natalie's eyes.

NATALIE: I know we're changing lives. I know we're changing lives.

The stacked blue U's of the UnitedHealthcare logo appear, followed by text.

ONSCREEN TEXT: UnitedHealthcare

When Xzavaria Henderson came to Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center (a federally qualified health center) looking for prenatal care for the birth of her third child, she had no idea just how all-encompassing that support would be.

Natalie Debelak, prenatal care coordinator with Northland Health Care Access who is embedded at Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center in Kansas City, connected Xzavaria with regular neonatal appointments to help with her complicated pregnancy. She also helped refer her to resources for rental and utility assistance.

“When I came to Sam Rodgers, I had lost my job,” Xzavaria said. “And so being able to have that extra hand to help out with things that not only helped me, but it helped me through my pregnancy and not being so stressed out.”

Collaborating to improve maternal health

Behind the scenes, a unique partnership powered by UnitedHealthcare Catalyst™ set the stage for these types of improved outcomes and wraparound support. In this effort, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Missouri, Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center and Northland Health Care Access work together in order to reduce disparities and improve maternal health outcomes to underserved communities in the area.

UnitedHealthcare Catalyst is a data-driven approach that looks at how health interventions would be most impactful in a community, and then brings together community-based organizations to drive interventions to meet the health needs of a community. In Jackson County, 1 in 9 babies are born with a low birthweight. Between 2020 and 2022, the rate of infants born with a low birthweight in Jackson increased more than 15%. Community insights suggest lack of insurance coverage, limited or no use of pre- and post-natal care, and reduced availability of resources (like nutritious food and transportation) add challenges to having a healthy pregnancy. The county also earned a “F” in the latest March of Dimes Report Card.

To address barriers to accessing care in the Kansas City community, UnitedHealthcare works with Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center and Northland Health Care Access, a community-based health care advocacy organization to offer a maternal health program which includes: 

Educating members on the importance of pre- and post-natal care, well child visits, and additional resources available for accessing care
Incorporating dental care and depression screenings more consistently into pre-natal care plans to support physical and behavioral health needs
Screening for and identifying social needs and making referrals to community partners for access to transportation, housing, healthy food and other health related social need resources

The impact of the program is continuously evaluated for purposes of program refinement and results are reported annually.

Advocating for mother and baby

For Xzavaria and more than 400 other mothers like her in the area, these successes go beyond numbers – they come from the compassionate connections between mother and baby — and their care team.

“I believe that patient interaction and patient care comes from building personal relationships,” Natalie said. “So I've worked really hard at making sure every patient has my cell phone number.”

Xzavaria’s pregnancy was not easy, but the scariest moment came after her baby was born, when having that number to call proved crucial.

“I told her I was rushed to the hospital because I bled out and they're wanting to do emergency surgery,” Xzavaria said, “but I'm scared and I don't have nobody here.”

Natalie went to the hospital immediately. At the hospital, she advocated for Xzavaria’s care with providers, then later picked up her prescriptions and took her home after discharge.

“Measurable success truly comes from getting text messages from patients with pictures of their babies,” Natalie said. “And every time they go to deliver and we send them with their prenatal records, I always say, please send me a picture and let me know how it goes.

“Every woman should have equal opportunity across the board.”

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