evolve
‘Know My Midwife’ program enhances maternity experience
The first phase of the rollout of Ramsay’s Know My Midwife (KMM) program is now complete, with feedback from mums and midwives overwhelmingly positive.
The Ramsay Way 2019 | 03 9
EVOLVE NEWS
Creating more value in maternity services
A group of experienced and enthusiastic maternity staff recently came together at a workshop in Sydney
to share their experiences and ideas, with the aim of ensuring Ramsay’s maternity services continue to
deliver innovative, high-quality and family-centred care.
Part of Ramsay’s ongoing commitment to continuous
improvement, the operational improvement meeting
introduced maternity staff to a set of values, beliefs and
actions that emphasise adding value to, and removing waste
from, our processes.
After much discussion and debate over the two-day
workshop, key performance indicators (KPIs) across three
areas of maternity – special care nursery, wards and birth
suites – were identified. The development and measurement
of these KPIs will now become an important part of the way
performance and improvement is measured across Ramsay’s
maternity services.
Feedback from the session was overwhelmingly positive,
with many of the attendees finding great value in the
opportunity to meet with maternity colleagues from other
hospitals from around the country, and to share their
knowledge, experience, challenges and ideas.
Gaylene Hardwick, Maternity Nurse Unit Manager at John
Flynn Private Hospital on the Gold Coast, is excited about
the future of maternity services at Ramsay and is keen
to share her new mindset and practical tools with her
maternity colleagues.
“The workshop was a fantastic experience and really
changed my way of thinking. The group format of the
workshop really worked well – it enabled us to look
at a service from different points of view and challenged
us to think about the process and how we can add value
not only to our patients, but also our staff,” Gaylene said.
“Midwives are passionate and dynamic people but
sometimes it can be hard to harness this energy if you don’t
have the right tools and mindset. We now have a shared
language and practical tools so we can make some really
positive changes.”
Ramsay Health Care will continue to focus on creating more
value and better experiences for our customers and staff.
The KMM program was borne after extensive consultation
with, and collaboration between, Ramsay’s maternity sites
to develop a national, standardised model of midwifery that
provides holistic care and support to mums during and after
their pregnancies.
Working in conjunction with obstetricians, specially-trained
Ramsay midwives in the KMM program offer mums an
enhanced maternity experience, including additional
ante- and post-natal check-ups, a 20-week screening,
and other supports.
Pindara Private Hospital on the Gold Coast is among the
first group of Ramsay sites to offer the KMM program, which
has been introduced as part of Ramsay’s commitment
to continuous improvement through the sharing and
standardising of best practice.
Johanna Stevenson, Maternity Nurse Unit Manager at
Pindara Private, says the addition of the Medicare-funded
KMM program to the hospital’s maternity services has been
exceptionally well received by parents-to-be, obstetricians
and staff.
“It is a great privilege and joy to be a midwife, and to offer
care during this special time in a new or expectant mum’s
life,” says Johanna.
“The KMM program enables us to meet expectant mums
early on in their pregnancy so we can develop meaningful,
trusted and supportive relationships with them, and offer
them a more personalised care experience both during and
after their delivery.”
As a measure of the program’s success, Pindara Private has
had to increase the number of KMM clinics it runs across
the week to cater to the demand from families and referrals
from obstetricians.
Other Ramsay hospitals which have introduced the KMM
program include Cairns Private Hospital, Frances Perry
House, Glengarry Private Hospital and Peninsula Private
Hospital. It is envisioned that by 2023 the KMM program
will be available to patients across all Ramsay maternity
hospitals across Australia.