Partners Healthcare

Earlier this year, I wrote about a pilot program at the Lynn Community Health Center that uses text messaging to encourage pregnant women to receive the proper amount of pre-natal care.

The messages were delivered to a group of 25 women, age 22 on average, who often had limited support systems in place and would truly benefit from additional reminders about how to have a healthy pregnancy. These messages were found to give the moms-to-be a feeling of being closely connected to their care team. A majority of the women who participated told us that the text messages also helped them to learn more ways to take care of themselves and their babies. In fact, results of patient surveys and review of the data showed women who got text messages from their clinical team received the recommended level of pre-natal care 9 percent more than other pregnant women who did not get text messages.

In light of the pilot’s early success, Partners Community Health and Partners’ Center for Connected Health have expanded the program to Brookside Community Health Center in Jamaica Plain. It will run for a year and is open to all pregnant patients at the health center who are followed by a Brigham and Women’s Midwife – at least 100 patients. The text messages will be in English and Spanish, and they will offer women helpful reminders about getting in touch with their health care team, taking their prenatal vitamins, drinking enough water, counting their baby’s movements, obtaining a car seat and more.

Our collective goal in this effort is to move health care out of the doctor’s office and into the day-to-day lives of our patients. We are using readily available technology to engage patients and to help them better manage and improve their overall health and well-being. It’s just another way Partners Community Health is making deeper commitments to the people and neighborhoods we serve.

Pictured (left to right): Melissa Shrestha, Partners Community Health, Paula McNichols, Executive Director Brookside Community Health Center, Alba Garcia, Women’s Health Counselor/Medical Assistant, Daisy Ocaiso, Medical Assistant, Maria Ocaiso, Perinatal Case Manager, Maria Bianciardi, OB Nurse Coordinator, Alexandra Pelletier, Partners Center for Connected Health