Rural health care services outreach grant program - holzer health system will form a new outreach consortium with the gallia, jackson, and meigs county health departments, the maternal health outreach…

Rural health care services outreach grant program - holzer health system will form a new outreach consortium with the gallia, jackson, and meigs county health departments, the maternal health outreach consortium (mhoc), to address high-risk pregnancies in a maternity desert in three rural appalachian counties in southeastern ohio. In 2024, 84% of delivered pregnancies at holzer health system were high-risk, underlining the consortium's motivation to organize for action. Mhoc's goals are to engage county health department community health workers (CHW) and public health nurses (PHN) in a perinatal outreach workforce project that improves high-risk pregnancy outcomes with interventions at the community level and at the individual level in rural communities in southeastern ohio. The project will build and strengthen the circuitry between consortium health systems, county health departments, and outreach workforce and bridge care gaps for more women experiencing high-risk pregnancies, removing their barriers to care. The maternal health outreach program (mhop) is designed to serve women between the ages of 15 to 35 with high-risk pregnancies that participate through health department activities and through holzer obstetrics and gynecology (obgyn) services that covers five counties, three of which are project area-focused: gallia, meigs, jackson, lawrence, and athens. Community-level perinatal outreach services will be focused on pregnant women who may be at-risk, and women identified with high-risk pregnancies will receive more individualized outreach services and care connections. The model will enable hand-offs between community-clinical care, empowering consortium partners and outreach workforce to provide high-need prevention and risk reduction services in the most accessible settings possible in these three rural, appalachian counties. Over the four-year period of performance, the consortium expects that conducting community-level and high-risk pregnancy protocols in gallia, jackson, and meigs counties will result in the following outcomes: • increased rate of women getting screened routinely for perinatal risks (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, depression). • increased number of women with at-risk pregnancies receiving ultrasound • decreased rate of hypertension in women ages 15-35 with high-risk pregnancies. • decreased rate of tobacco use in women ages 15-35 with high-risk pregnancies. • increased rate of women with high-risk pregnancies successfully referred to and receiving mental health care. • increased rate of women with high-risk pregnancies actively managing gestational diabetes and a decreased rate of women diagnosed with gestational diabetes. • increased awareness of risk factors affecting perinatal health (e.g., mental health, diabetes, tobacco use). • increased access to substance use disorder education, prevention, and services by women with at-risk pregnancies. • increased rate of successfully completed sdoh screenings and referrals to services. • increased rate of women with high-risk pregnancies whose health-related social needs are being met. The consortium will consult evidence-based models and tools that match desired outcomes, the risk factors, and protective factors they want to address, the outreach workforce they want to amplify, and the types of organizations engaged in the consortium and project. The south carolina perinatal community health worker toolkit, the rural health information hub CHW toolkit. Alliance for innovation in maternal health aim) patient safety bundles, and the perinatal health partnership of southeast georgia. Holzer health system is requesting a funding preference based on qualification 1. Holzer health system (100 jackson pike, gallipolis, OH), is in a dental health, mental health, and a primary care hpsa with a score of 19, 16, and 19, respectively. Attachment 11 includes funding preference documentation.