Medicaid Enhanced Prenatal/Postnatal Services Using a Nurse-Community Health Worker Team

Enhanced services include home visiting, transportation, psychosocial counseling, multidisciplinary planning, case management, nutritional guidance, and pregnancy and parenting education during pregnancy and infancy. The services are delivered primarily by nurses with occasional visits by social workers or nutritionists. In the county of the study (Kent), women who were assessed were provided intervention services.

A nurse and two CHWs functioned as a team, using visit and clinical guidelines that detailed expected care. Each team provided services for approximately 50-60 families. While occasional visits were made by both providers, most visits were made by either provider alone. Nurses guided the CHW care, led a multidisciplinary team assessment (with social workers, nutritionists, and others), provided crisis intervention and case management, assessed and managed health problems (including screening for depression and mental health care), and had periodic office visits with prenatal providers. CHWs provided relationship-based support by attempting weekly prenatal contact that alternated phone and face-to-face visits and used peer role modeling and personal empowerment approaches.