Midwives help pediatricians during RSV crisis

Jan 25, 2023 | Canadian News, News

Midwives of York Region are using their skills to help postpartum hospital staff discharge their new moms faster amid a shortage of pediatric beds.

“We have a unique set of skills that a lot of other healthcare providers are maybe limited in,” Carolyn Scott, head midwife at Midwives of York Region in Aurora, Ont., said.

Southlake Regional Health Centre’s pediatric unit intake skyrocketed in November. It was pushed into over-capacity because of a surge in patients with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), influenza and COVID-19.

Scott proposed the Early Discharge program as a solution to free up the needed beds for the pediatric unit.

“Midwives have been doing this for a long time,” Scott said. “As a registered midwife, I’ve been working for 20 years, and these are things that I am familiar with.”

Scott and her team of nine other midwives are primary care providers for women throughout their pregnancy, during their labour and up to six weeks after their patients’ babies are born.

The Early Discharge program allows midwives to provide the postpartum care that obstetricians and pediatricians usually give their patients, except for one unique detail: midwives can provide this care from the comfort of the mother’s home.

The Midwives of York Region have taken on about 10 per cent of the doctors’ patients to determine whether mothers and their newborns were cleared for early discharge from the hospital.

Scott said midwives took on 15 patients for early discharge and took 112 newborn exams in December.

Dr. Arif Manji, chief of pediatrics at Southlake Regional Health Centre, said that during the height of the surge in pediatric patients, they were dealing with double the usual volume they normally see in hospitals but with fewer resources.

Ontario was short 10 beds in pediatric units in November when the Early Discharge Program began, according to Ontario Health’s Data Catalog.

“Given the harsh realities our hospital was facing, this seemed like the right next step for us to do,” Manji said.

He noted the midwives have a “phenomenal” track record of being able to provide excellent care to mothers and babies, and that they’ve been doing so for decades.

Vice President of Clinical Services at Southlake Regional Health Centre, Barbara Steed, gave the stamp of approval to the program.

“We’re hoping that it’ll be seen as an initiative that the province could start to fund as something that frees up hospital capacity and is better for patients,” Steed said.

When hospital staff bring an initiative or project to her, Steed has to understand how it will help serve the system and overall operations at the hospital.

She addresses questions of efficiency, patient experience, quality and cost.

“With our health-human resource crisis that is now here and going to stay with us for the next indeterminate number of years, it’s going to be more important than ever that professionals partner in these kinds of models that augment each others’ skills,” Steed said.

Oak Valley Health, formerly Markham-Stouffville Hospital, was the first hospital in the GTA to put the plan in place.

Southlake self-funded the Early Discharge Program to begin in November and last until the end of February.