Evaluating the Impact of Telehealth Prenatal Care at a Federally Qualified Health Center.

introductionDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians had to reimagine perinatal care. Mary's Center, a federally qualified health center, built an innovative telehealth group prenatal care (T-GPNC) program to ensure equitable and safe access to health care. T-GPNC includes an individual telehealth assessment and group education. We conducted a program evaluation to determine the adequacy of prenatal care for T-GPNC clients compared with individual prenatal care (IPC) clients and to describe client satisfaction with T-GPNC.

methodsThis mixed-methods study included a retrospective chart review of electronic health records of Spanish-speaking midwifery clients at Mary's Center between July 1, 2021, and August 31, 2023, and client satisfaction surveys for T-GPNC. The T-GPNC intervention was offered only to Spanish-speaking clients in this timeframe. Our main outcome of interest was the adequacy of prenatal care, measured by generating an Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index. We conducted a thematic analysis of the surveys that included open-ended and categorical questions.

resultsThe study sample for adequacy of prenatal care included 141 T-GPNC and 193 IPC clients. The majority of clients were Latinx, and 97.9% received public insurance or were uninsured. T-GPNC clients were significantly more likely to receive adequate or adequate-plus care at 67.9% compared to 39.1% for IPC clients (χ DISCUSSION: T-GPNC provided critical support to Spanish-speaking clients during the COVID-19 pandemic, producing higher rates of adequate prenatal care for T-GPNC clients than for those receiving IPC and resulting in highly satisfied T‑GPNC clients. These statistically significant and clinically meaningful results indicate the value added by implementing T-GPNC.