Maternal Outreach Through Telehealth for Rural Sites: The MOTHeRS Project

North Carolina Medical Journal: Maternal Outreach Through Telehealth for Rural Sites: The MOTHeRS Project

The pandemic brought challenges to rural maternal health. The North Carolina Statewide Telepsychiatry Program (NC-STeP), a statewide telepsychiatry program, used telehealth and health technologies to bring multidisciplinary care to three community-based primary care obstetric clinics. The MOTHeRS (Maternal Outreach through Telehealth for Rural Sites) Project brings the primary obstetrician together with multiple aspects of patient care. Telepsychiatry offers a potential approach for enhancing maternal health care by linking the maternal health practice with an offsite psychiatrist in an integrated care model. Preliminary results show improvement in care access and reduced health disparities.