There is a maternal health crisis for women of color in the United States, and Holy Cross Health wants to change that for women in the Metropolitan Washington area.
“Despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the maternal mortality rate in the United States is 23.8 per 100,000 women,” pointed out Dr. Janis Green, MBA, FACOG, FPMRS, vice president of medical affairs at Holy Cross Health. The U.S. mortality rate, she added, is three times ahead of France and Canada.
What’s more, “Black women are three times more likely to die in childbirth in comparison to their non-Hispanic, White counterparts,” Green told WTOP for our 2024 Get on Top of Your Health series. “And this year alone, the maternal mortality rate for Hispanic women increased 44%.”
Holy Cross recognizes that systemic racism has led to the gap in access to quality healthcare, she noted. With that in mind, Holy Cross is spearheading a major focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to educate staff members about their own implicit biases.
“When doctors and nurses have these unconscious biases, they may deliver care in a different way,” Green said.
The training programs aim to help people recognize their own biases and overcome them. Any staff member who has contact with a pregnant woman is required to participate — “our food and nutrition service individuals, transportation, nursing residents and physicians” — everyone, Green said.
Building on a solid foundation in women’s health care
With hospitals in Silver Spring and Germantown, four primary care facilities and three health centers across the region, the health system is a regional leader when it comes to delivering services for women — and particular maternity care, Green said.
“At Holy Cross, we provide comprehensive health care services for both pregnant women and their newborns,” she said. “In our outpatient clinic settings, we provide prenatal care and postpartum care. For those women who are at high risk, we have high-risk obstetric consultations and ultrasounds with our perinatologists.” The health system also offers OB-GYN and wellness visits focused on cervical and breast cancer screening.
“And for our smallest patients, our NICU is equipped to take care of the tiniest babies,” she added, working in partnership with Children’s National Medical Center.
Healthy outcomes begin with preventative care, which is the cornerstone of women’s health at Holy Cross.
“Oftentimes, women see their OB-GYN as their primary care provider,” Green said. “So, it’s really important that we provide routine GYN screenings for breast cancer and cervical cancer, but that we also individualize that treatment for patients based on their personal family history to make sure we’re screening for cardiovascular risk factors, hypertension, diabetes and cholesterol too.”
Empowering women by promoting health advocacy
Teaching women how to advocate for themselves is also part of the mission at Holy Cross. Why? Because it leads to better understanding between doctors and their patients and ultimately to better health outcomes for those requiring care, she said.
“Our nurses and our physicians actually use the teach-back technique when providing information,” Green said. The method encourages each provider to have a patient repeat back what she has learned to confirm understanding. “This encourages the patients and family to ask questions when they don’t understand.”
Approximately 34% of patients at Holy Cross are not native English speakers. To help all patients have equal access to quality care, Holy Cross provides interpreter services in multiple languages.
“Last month alone, we provided interpretation in over 41 languages to make sure patients understand” the information doctors and clinicians share with them and ensure the patients can ask follow-up questions, Green said. Holy Cross also provides educational materials in multiple languages to make sure patients have care plans that they can take with them when they leave a facility.
Holy Cross Health’s dedication to women’s health means that patients can rely on an experienced team, at every stage of her life, to bring the most advanced medical expertise to meet their changing needs, Green said.
Leaning into AI, innovative IT to improve health care outcomes
“Artificial intelligence and leveraging that in healthcare is the greatest advancement that we’ve had to date,” said Dr. Janis Green, vice president of medical affairs at Holy Cross Health.
Radiologists at Holy Cross have been the earliest adopters — incorporating AI into diagnostic studies for reading and interpreting X-rays, CT scans and other medical imagery. The results often lead doctors to incidental findings that help determine necessary follow-up with patients, she said.
AI is also used to enhance the patient-doctor relationship.
“We are actually planning to leverage our electronic medical system to use a form of AI that can help physicians take their initial notes — not their final documentation — but the initial notes on the visit. That way, they can focus more on the patient-physician relationship and less on the computer where they’re trying to take notes for later on,” Green said.
“You want to meet your doctor, not your doctor and their laptop,” she said. The better that patient-doctor relationship, the more likely the patient is to follow recommendations and have better outcomes.”
Learn more about Holy Cross care and services for women.
