Banner Health Unveils Telehealth Program for Obstetrics

Phoenix-based Banner Health has launched a pilot program providing virtual consultations to support obstetrics care in rural communities.

The obstetrics telehealth project will connect family physicians with obstetric privileges in rural areas to obstetrics specialists. The consultations may occur over the phone between the two physicians or through a telehealth cart that can be brought to the patient's room, allowing for a three-way virtual conversation.

"In rural areas, you might only have two family physicians who provide OB care," said Blake McLaughlin, MD, a Banner Health obstetric and gynecologist specialist, in the press release. "If one of them is away, the other one is all alone."

The program began at Sterling Regional MedCenter in Sterling, Colorado, on April 5. Physicians from Sterling Regional can now virtually connect with OB/GYN hospitalists at North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, Colorado. The OB/GYN hospitalists can also access the patient's EMR and gain real-time information.

Through the program, Banner Health aims to reduce the need for medical interventions at birth, such as Caesarian sections, and curb patient transfers from smaller, rural hospitals to larger facilities.

More than 50 percent of rural counties have no hospital-based obstetrics services, and rural hospitals report higher rates of postpartum hemorrhage and blood transfusion during labor and delivery than urban hospitals, according to data collected by The Commonwealth Fund last year.

Further, rural areas had a pregnancy-related mortality ratio of 29.4 per 100,000 live births versus 18.2 in urban areas in 2015, a report published by the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services shows.

Banner Health, which owns and operates 30 acute-care hospitals, physician groups, long-term care centers, outpatient surgery centers, and other services in six states, plans to expand its tele-obstetrics program to other rural communities.

Research has shown that connecting physicians to specialists can help improve health outcomes. For example, Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes), a collaborative medical education and care management model that uses video technology to train and support providers, helped reduce hospitalizations among Medicaid patients with diabetes in New Jersey.

But rural areas face several hurdles to accessing virtual care, including broadband access. About 22 percent of Americans in rural areas and 28 percent of Americans in Tribal lands lack fixed terrestrial broadband coverage, as compared to only 1.5 percent of Americans in urban areas, according to a 2020 report by the Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC is pouring millions into expanding broadband access to combat this issue. Last month, the agency announced plans to authorize more than $640 million to support new broadband deployments in 26 states.