Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Kirsten Provart, Patient Care Supervisor of the Lactation Program at Children's Minnesota

Transcript

Kirsten Provart, Patient Care Supervisor of the Lactation Program at Children's Minnesota · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  This is Christos with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Kirsten Probar,
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  patient care supervisor of lactation program at Children's Minnesota.
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  We connected with her to discuss the health system's effort to provide mothers
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  with breast pumps. Kirsten, thank you so much for joining us today.
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  Thank you for having me. I'm thrilled to be here.
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  Excellent.
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  Could you please introduce yourself and tell us about your background?
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  Yes, absolutely. So I am Kirsten Prova, as Chris said,
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  I am currently the patient care supervisor of one of our nurseries here at
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  Children Minnesota, as well as our lactation program.
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  Prior to my supervisor role,
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  I worked on our neonatal float team here at Children's for a few years.
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  I started at Children's as a brand new, new grad rn,
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  and so this has been my career at Children's.
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  I am very honored to be an employee here.
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  Kirsten, as I mentioned,
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  children's Minnesota has a program to provide mothers with breast pumps.
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  It's all part of your health equity efforts over at Children's Minnesota,
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  something that many hospitals health systems speak about and want to get
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  rolling. Uh,
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  could you tell me how did the idea to loan breast pumps to mothers involve,
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  evolve,
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  and what personal personnel rather and resources have been needed to implement
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  it?
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  Absolutely, yes.
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  Children's has a commitment to our patient families to provide more equitable
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  care. And so in that we now own 20 portable hospital grade breast
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  pumps that are available to moms free of charge while their child is here in our
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  hospital at Children's Minnesota. While in the hospital,
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  many of our newborns aren't able to breastfeed immediately after delivery,
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  which leaves their moms dependent on a pump to initiate and ma maintain that
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  milk supply.
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  And most breast pumps we realize are designed to support an already existing
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  milk supply,
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  but it often takes that hospital grade pump to really successfully start that
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  milk supply if the newborn is not at the breast.
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  So our lactation consultants know this and saw a gap where many of our
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  patient mothers were unable to obtain that hospital grade breast pump and were
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  therefore struggling to make the milk that they needed to feed their baby.
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  So they saw that came up with the solution,
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  and then you asked what personnel and resources.
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  It was one of these programs that many,
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  many people around the org touched in order to get it from conception to launch.
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  Um, our lactation team worked very closely with our compliance team,
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  our team from legal and finance,
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  all to really make this program become what it is today. Breast,
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  a breast pump company will run a rental program from themselves.
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  Um, and we had looked into doing that, but then really realized,
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  wouldn't it be cool if we could just run, like,
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  if we could just purchase these pumps outright and run the program ourselves so
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  we're not dealing with an outside vendor. So that's,
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  we pioneered the hospital owning the project, um,
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  and really having this fleet at our disposal versus going through
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  an outside party.
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  Kirsten,
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  how many people have availed themselves of the program so far and what's the
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  feedback that been like?
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  Yes, so we went live on March 1st of this year, and since GoLive,
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  we have completed 23 loan agreements where the pump was loaned out,
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  used and returned back to us,
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  and those 23 pumps supported 29 neonates, which is so exciting.
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  Um, on an average day,
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  we would say between 75 to 85% of our 20 pumps are loaned out,
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  and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Um,
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  we have had mothers who have unexpectedly delivered early whose pump was not
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  scheduled to be delivered for a few more weeks.
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  We've seen mothers who were using a pump that was causing pain with pumping.
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  Um, we were able to help a mom who is here unexpectedly from out of town who
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  delivered unexpectedly who did not have access to the pump that she had back
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  home.
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  And all of those moms have just been so thankful for the ability to use the pump
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  and that it's helped with their effective feeding,
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  which has in turn created a good milk supply for them to give their babies.
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  Uh, as you said,
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  it's only been about a couple of months since you've had this program,
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  but what have you learned about the need to be flexible?
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  Certainly you touched on that a little bit, but yeah.
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  What have you learned about what you need to do with this program moving
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  forward?
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  Yes, absolutely. Since the program is brand new, um,
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  we are learning every day with the needs that our moms have and how to meet
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  them. And so each day that when we come to work and work with these mothers,
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  we are figuring out the needs that they have and how we can best support them
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  and make sure that this pump program is helping them first and foremost.
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  And so if that is bending to, um,
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  the needs of when and where they need to return the pump or how they need to
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  pick the pump up, we are just trying to make sure that it is, um,
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  fair and equitable to all of the mothers who have our pumps. And that really,
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  at the end of the day, it is benefiting their milk supply,
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  which in turn is benefiting our patients here at Children's Minnesota.
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  How do you make sure that everything is fair and equitable with the program?
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  Yeah, absolutely. We,
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  I think the biggest thing with learning about being fair and equitable is that
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  not every situation will look the same because not every mother's situation is
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  the same. And so really with that health equity,
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  it's not that every single person that comes in will see these exact same,
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  you know, step one, step two,
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  step three because if we're being equitable to them,
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  we realize those steps may not work for them. And so I think it's,
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  it's been a learning opportunity for all of us to know we design a program,
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  you write out every single detail and then you grow along the way.
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  When you realize to meet these needs,
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  they might not be returned in the patient's room as we stated on the sheet.
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  You know,
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  it might be meeting the mom at their next follow up appointment because she
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  didn't have a ride to bring it in earlier than that. And so knowing that, hey,
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  we're gonna meet her where she is at and we're still gonna get the pump back,
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  and she still had the opportunity to use it,
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  but it is fair and equitable than to all involved.
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  That makes sense to me. Certainly.
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  Were you able to draw from other programs that are similar or as far as you
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  know, were you starting this all from scratch?
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  We really started the pump rental program from str, um, scratch,
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  but we were able to draw from our,
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  our compliance and legal team really helped us with the outline of the program
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  with other programs in the org when it just came to generally, you know,
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  how do you get a program from conception to launch?
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  They really were able to walk us through step-by-step,
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  here's what a loan agreement should look like. And so in that regard,
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  we definitely pulled from many different areas of children's,
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  but in regards to having a pump loaner program,
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  we really created it from the ground up here at Children's.
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  On the subject of healthcare equity.
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  Do you know of any other programs at Children's Minnesota now that you have the
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  lactation program off the ground that might be able to follow in its footsteps?
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  Yes, absolutely. Children's Minnesota.
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  We remain committed to health equity and looking at this issue from all facets
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  of care. Um, as the kid experts,
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  that's what we call ourselves here we are on a mission to champion these health
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  needs of all of the children and families in our community.
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  One of another program that we have is our neonatal virtual care,
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  um, which is a program that provides on demand care
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  management for newborns that need that immediate and acute stabilization and
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  resuscitation.
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  It allows for regional and rural hospitals to
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  electronically connect with our neonatologists and neonatal nurse practitioners
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  here at Children's to immediately have that connection to see and hear what is
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  happening in their delivery rooms and operating rooms to help in
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  the moment.
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  And that program launched in 2018 and has had great success and we're really
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  hoping to continue with that and help grow that program to reach any other
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  area hospital, be that in Minnesota or Wisconsin,
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  to provide that equitable care to ensure that all of our neonates are getting
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  that critical acute life-saving care that they need right at delivery.
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  Kirsten is certainly important to speak about healthcare equity.
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  As I mentioned before, it's a subject that needs a spotlight.
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  How has it become as big as it is within Children's Minnesota?
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  How has the awareness grown and why is it so important?
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  Yeah, absolutely. I do think, as you said, it is, uh,
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  an issue that deserves the brightest spotlight.
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  I think we are all realizing that we all have areas that we can grow and do
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  better as we learn about people.
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  And Children's really puts that as the forefront is as we learn about each
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  individual patient and family who walks through our doors,
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  children's makes an effort to meet them where they are and make sure that they
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  are receiving the best care possible. And so I just think we are,
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  we're excited to be pioneers in this work.
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  We're excited to have this be a forefront.
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  We're excited about the ability to be able to be highlighted here,
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  to speak about the many efforts and programs that we have that really help us
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  meet our patient and family where they're at.
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  Ki thank you so much for your time and insights today.
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  If we look forward to connecting with you soon.
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  Thank you so much for having me.