Cardiac-related complications in pregnant and postpartum moms is the top driver of maternal mortality in Georgia, according to the state’s latest maternal mortality report.
That includes complications from cardiomyopathy, which can lead to heart failure. Hemorrhage, which can be caused by hypertension, and preeclampsia are also leading causes of maternal mortality.
Just over two years after it began, a program out of Southeast Georgia that relies on remote monitoring of patients is working on providing a solution.
Using bluetooth blood pressure monitors and text reminders, Mom’s Heart Matters has over 150 patients enrolled at Liberty Regional Medical Center in Hinesville.
The program launched originally to help new moms at the hospital with risky cardiac-related conditions, but has since expanded its availability to all women in its maternity ward with additional mental health, lactation consulting and stress management focused tracks.
Nurse and Perinatal Services Director Heather Daniels, also co-founder of the program, said they’ve been able to intervene before postpartum complications become life threatening. Using a digital interface developed by GoMo Health, alerts are sent automatically when a patient's blood pressure is high, or if survey responses trigger a concerning situation.
About 95% of those who enroll for remote monitoring at Liberty Regional have stayed in the program.
“We've had so many moms be willing to enroll,” Daniels said. “It's been huge.”
Patients who participate are monitored up to a year after delivery.
Liberty Regional staff and program sponsors recently invited potential partners to an event in Atlanta in an effort to expand. Emory University is the latest to partner through its Center for Black Women’s Wellness.
While digital tools can’t solve Georgia’s maternal health crisis, Daniels said state support behind Moms Heart Matters could be crucial for those tools to become standard.
“The more data we have, the more we can show how massive an impact our program has on the community and that they need to invest to help others and in Georgia,” Daniels said.
South of Fulton County, Kiana Ayers is also a new program partner.
Ayers runs Ready Set Push, an organization that offers prenatal education classes and other maternal health resources out of Southern Regional Medical Center.
There, Ayers said they’ve been monitoring high-risk mothers using at-home blood pressure cuffs with funding help from the Department of Community Health.
“You typically don't have enough funding or enough manpower to be able to have enough people who can call them every day,” Ayers said of the program. She hopes the automatic readings make tracking patients' health easier.
For now, Mom’s Heart Matters is supported financially by sponsors.
Elsewhere, at-home blood pressure cuffs for new moms are covered under Medicaid as of last year. It’s one example of a push toward better maternal health in the state that Health Appropriations Chair Darlene Taylor said lawmakers are focused on.
“The No. 1 thing is to make sure people know services are available,” Taylor said. “As a government entity, we need to use all the resources we have.”
Georgia ranks among the worst in the nation for maternal health outcomes, and Black women are particularly at risk.
Medicaid coverage is available to postpartum women in Georgia for up to a year. Last session, Taylor helped pass a bill to make biomarker tests for preeclampsia available but said she’s working on making it available under major insurance providers. Making cardiac monitoring equiptment available in hospitals and mandatory mental health screenings are also being explored by lawmakers.
Taylor said lawmakers are also exploring technology like remote monitoring that helps hold providers and patients accountable for their health even outside of a healthcare setting. But also, coordinating care with community health care workers who can visit patients at home.
Nurse and maternal health support worker Ayers said there's no single approach that will work on its own.
"One in it by itself is not as productive," Ayers said. "Coming with that holistic view is really what you want."
