Join me in congratulating Steve Tullman and his staff on winning an Achievement Award from The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) for the hospital’s Healthy Baby Program. You’ll recall that PCHF provided a grant of $35,250 from our COVID-19 Fund to support half the cost of this program over the summer to ensure that pregnant women, and especially pregnant Latinas, could continue to receive vital prenatal, delivery, and post-partum care. Congratulations to Steve, Barb O’Connor, and all the staff at Phoenixville Hospital on this achievement and for your tireless efforts to keep our friends and neighbors healthy and well!
We are proud to support your work.
Tamela Luce, President and CEO, Phoenixville Community Health Foundation
January 25, 2021
HAP’S Achievement showcase exceptional programs throughout Pennsylvania’s hospital community. This week, HAP is proud to recognize Phoenixville Hospital for its Healthy Baby Program that ensures underserved women have access to excellent prenatal, delivery and post-partum care.
Phoenixville Hospital received HAP’s 2020 Community Champions Award for its project, “Healthy Baby Program: Improving Access and Care for Underserved Pregnant Women.”
During 2015, Phoenixville Hospital identified a need to launch a Healthy Baby Program. After a thorough data review and preparation, the hospital focused its initial outreach on the community’s Latino population, setting a goal to help more at-risk pregnant women receive access to care within their community.
To launch its program, the hospital collaborated with a local OB-GYN practice, churches, and non-profit organizations, providing patients access to local care, language support, and educational resources.
The hospital learned several important lessons from its project:
- Health literacy, language literacy, and cultural competency are top priorities to ensure patients have the proper support and access to care
- Bilingual patient representatives serve a critical role, offering language and navigator assistance by scheduling appointments, enrolling women in classes, and referring participants to community resources
- A strong partnership between the OB/GYN provider, hospital, and other community organizations can ensure similar programs are able to meet community needs
Thus far, the Healthy Baby initiative has been very successful, improving access to care for at-risk populations in the hospital’s primary service area. As the hospital begins to pursue its goals for the next decade, maternal, infant, and child health will remain a top priority.
