MetroHealth Expands Nurse-Family Partnership Through $500,000 Mt. Sinai Health Foundation Grant

The MetroHealth System will expand its successful Nurse-Family Partnership, a nationally renowned initiative to improve the health and lives of pregnant patients and their babies, through a $500,000 grant from the Mt. Sinai Health Foundation.

For the last nine years, the MetroHealth Nurse-Family Partnership has paired BSN-prepared registered nurses with low-income patients expecting their first baby who are at risk of preventable pregnancy complications and poor birth outcomes. With this two-year Mt. Sinai Health Foundation grant, the program will be able to serve more families by enrolling patients at any point in their pregnancy, regardless of whether they've been pregnant before.

Nurse-Family Partnership nurses make regular home visits throughout the patient's pregnancy and after delivery up to the baby's second birthday. Over the course of the program, the nurses monitor their patients' health and teach them what they need to know to take good care of themselves and their babies. They also encourage the new parents to envision a future of economic self-sufficiency and help them develop a plan to achieve their goals.

"We're grateful to have the Mt. Sinai Health Foundation as a longstanding partner in our work to improve maternal and infant health in Cuyahoga County," said Donald "Chip" Wiper, III, MD, Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology for MetroHealth and Medical Director for the program. "We have seen the good the Nurse-Family Partnership has done for first-time parents and their babies. The opportunity to build on those successful outcomes is reason to celebrate."

The program is a response to the extraordinarily high rate of death among Cuyahoga County's pregnant and post-partum patients and their infants. Black women and infants are at especially high risk. Black women are two and a half times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy, and Black infants die before their first birthdays at rate nearly three times that of white infants, according to the Ohio Department of Health (ODH).

An ODH study found that, for participants in the state's Help Me Grow home-visiting programs, including the Nurse-Family Partnership, the infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births was less than half of the rate of those not enrolled in home-visiting programs.

Mt. Sinai Health Foundation founding President Mitchell Balk led the movement to establish the Nurse-Family Partnership in Cuyahoga County in 2016. He knew the program had been effective in other cities, and he wanted to bring it here, where the need was great. So, he turned to MetroHealth.

"We are thrilled that MetroHealth has been able to bring the Nurse-Family Partnership to scale throughout Northeast Ohio, serving 400 first-time moms on an ongoing basis," Balk said. "Mt. Sinai's recent $500,000 grant will help MetroHealth reach all moms who know the benefits a home-visiting nurse can bring for both mom and baby, prenatally to age 2."

Kimberly Green, MSN, RN, C-EFM, Vice President of Women and Children's Services and administrator of the Nurse-Family Partnership, said the program's home-visiting nurses go beyond providing physical assessments and monitoring vital signs. The team, led by nurse supervisors Sara Biedenbach, MEd, BSN, RNC-MNN, and Maria Rush, MSN, RN, CNML, is dedicated to helping patients overcome the social barriers that negatively impact health and overall well-being.

"Our program is not just about traditional nursing," Biedenbach said. "We support our clients and help them set and meet life goals. That could be offering help with applying for a job, finishing high school or going on to further their education. We encourage them and connect them with resources. We help with everything from budgeting to making grocery lists that prioritize nutrition. Whatever goal the new parents may have, the nurses will do everything in their power to help them get there."

Patients can be referred to the Nurse-Family Partnership by providers from MetroHealth or other area health systems as well as Medicaid managed care plans, WIC, local school districts, Pathway HUB or community-based organizations. If they choose to participate, they become part of a connection that lasts long after the program ends.

"We become someone they can depend on and trust," Rush said. "We encourage them and help them see potential for their future. We show them how to advocate for themselves. We've seen new parents become nurses. We've seen them go off to college and create businesses. It's rewarding to see each of them grow as a person."

Danielle Grantham attributes her own growth to the care she received from her visiting nurse at one of the most vulnerable times of her life. Now she works with MetroHealth as the Nurse-Family Partnership Coordinator for Administrative Outreach, supporting the program that uplifted her and her family.

"There's a lot of education and knowledge that goes into being a parent that a lot of people don't have access to," Grantham said. "It means so much just to have someone to talk to who isn't going to look down on you because you can't afford a pack of diapers. The nurses provide emotional support, education and resources. I don't feel like I would be the mom I am today if I didn't have my visiting nurse. That's what I tell everyone when they call in to the program office or when I'm at meetings in the community: I know I am a great mom because of the Nurse-Family Partnership."