Improving Patient‐Centered Postpartum Care Planning and Coordination Within a Federally Qualified Health Center

INTRODUCTION: Inadequate postpartum care coordination may contribute to preventable maternal morbidity and mortality and misses a crucial opportunity to engage patients in their care after giving birth. More than half of pregnancy-related deaths occur between one week and one year postpartum, and health disparities are consistently observed for marginalized populations. The optimization of providing postpartum care must prioritize a person-centered approach and support the transition back to primary care in order to improve maternal health outcomes. PROCESS: A rapid-cycle quality improvement initiative was implemented over 8 weeks in a federally qualified health center serving a population with predominantly low risk medical needs. At baseline, only 53% of clinic patients attended a postpartum visit within 3 weeks of birth, and none had a care plan in place to facilitate the transition back into primary care. This initiative aimed to improve the patient experience of fourth trimester care planning and engagement to a mean score of 5 (from a baseline of 4.3 on a 6-point scale) on the modified 9-item Shared Decision Making Questionnaire (SDM-Q-9) in 8 weeks. Care coordination using a pregnancy care passport and a fourth trimester registry were implemented to support patient-centered engagement, evidence-based care, and to track outcomes related to care coordination progress. OUTCOMES: Engagement in postpartum care planning as a shared decision-making experience improved to a mean score of 5.8 on the SDM-Q-9 in eight weeks. The registry demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in fourth trimester visit scheduling and attendance (P