Jan, 2021 by Philips Healthcare
Reading time: 3-4 minutes

Miles of difference in access to care: addressing maternal health disparities in one of the wealthiest regions of the U.S.

Think about what it's like for newly pregnant moms who have different backgrounds and are living in a prosperous city like San Francisco. On one street lives a mom who has a job with healthcare benefits and full access to great prenatal care at a center with the latest technology. She is all set to give birth at the private hospital down the road. Just a mile away lives another mom who is struggling without health insurance and having trouble accessing prenatal services – the staff at her clinic provides exceptional care, but she has to travel elsewhere for ultrasounds. Maybe she can’t afford to take time off from work to travel to and from appointments, or can’t afford child care while she is at the doctor. Should she be deprived of quality prenatal care and the life-changing moments that other expectant mothers get to experience solely due to the circumstances of her life?

In a wealthy region like the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s hard to believe that one mile can make a difference. The truth is, wealthy urban regions across the country, from San Francisco to Atlanta, are not immune to maternal health disparities. A closer look reveals stark racial disparities for pregnant women in the Bay Area who receive early prenatal care, including those in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties.¹  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), African American women are three to four times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth, and infant mortality in the Bay Area is four times higher for African American women than for white women.^2,3

Providing safety net clinics the same access to state-of-the-art technology as wealthier, private hospitals

Safety net clinics offer hope for underserved moms and are critical to improving care and preventing these deaths, as they strive to provide care to individuals regardless of ability to pay. According to the California Association of Free and Public Clinics, there are nearly 7.5 million uninsured Californians. At the same time, free clinics are facing a 20% decrease in funding,⁴ making it even more difficult to get the technology they need to provide care that is on par with wealthier, private hospitals.

For moms-to-be, this can mean the difference of having access to ultrasound in their community clinics – or not. Dr. Moody describes what it is like when a patient needs an ultrasound in a clinic that does not have the technology. “For our patients to have an ultrasound we would need to refer them out. Whether it was a diagnostic center or if they needed an urgent ultrasound, if we were very worried about the mom and baby’s health, we would have to send them to the emergency room in order to get the imaging that they needed.”

This introduces a range of challenges for moms, including taking time off from work, finding transportation and child care and affording care.⁵ For mothers struggling to make ends meet, especially those experiencing a complicated pregnancy where frequent ultrasounds are needed, having to travel farther distances or to unfamiliar doctors can add stress and difficulty to prenatal care and threaten their ability to make appointments. Seeing the healthcare team they know, in the community they live in, benefits moms-to-be on many levels.

MedShare and Philips are partnering to make an impact

From seeing their babies for the first time on an ultrasound through giving birth, these moms deserve the same kind of maternity experience, prenatal care and state-of-the-art health technologies as those who have access to private health systems. That’s why organizations like MedShare and Philips are partnering to help reduce the miles of difference by addressing birth equity challenges and strengthening care in underserved communities.

MedShare is a humanitarian aid organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for people and communities by sourcing and directly delivering surplus medical supplies and equipment to communities in need around the world. MedShare reached out to Philips, a global leader in health technology focused on improving people’s health and enabling better outcomes, to partner in MedShare’s Safe Birthing Initiative, which looks to strengthen the capacity of maternity and neonatal units in underserved communities.

As MedShare engages with local clinics and helps expand their OB/GYN services, it also aims to demonstrate that the addition of diagnostic ultrasound equipment in community-based health practices can help patients receive better and more efficient care, which can lead to better health outcomes for mothers and newborn children.

Philips is proud to partner with MedShare in this effort, helping to bring healthcare where it’s needed most:

• Philips recently donated state-of-the-art Philips ultrasound imaging solutions for MedShare to distribute to safety net clinics in the San Francisco Bay Area, helping to address birth equity challenges. Axis Community Health is the first of 10 safety net clinics that are receiving ultrasounds, with many more to follow

• Over the past four years, Philips has provided donations of maternal and neonatal equipment through MedShare’s Maternal & Child Health Program

• Through MedShare initiatives, Philips has donated critically needed supplies to frontline care providers, such as face masks, ventilators, gloves, gowns and head coverings, to 170 free and safety net clinics and more than 40 homeless shelters in the Southeast

• The MedShare partnership also includes Philips volunteer support, educational materials and expertise for application training, service and remote monitoring