University of Pennsylvania Health System
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives
Gold
Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women in the U.S. Penn Medicine has been working for years to lead the medical field in eliminating these harms—a comprehensive, system-wide effort encompassing research, clinical care, and community engagement. The work was ongoing and relied on efforts from across different hospitals and teams in our large organization, and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology had identified several core themes that unified the “how” and “why” of these efforts. This led us to undertake a carefully thought-out communications campaign to tell the story as it progressed. Our storytelling emphasized an all-hands-on-deck effort, care across the lifespan, and centering patients and their families as the cornerstone of healthy communities.
What was the most impactful part of your entry?
It made an impression on everyone involved to see this enormous multi-team, multi-year effort encapsulated in one narrative. As one of the physicians wrote when reviewing the article, “Strangely, this piece knitted together so many individual efforts that we have all been passionate about for a long time in a way that makes more sense than I realized. I am humbled to be working alongside some of these amazing people.” It helped that the writer of our main narrative told the story across four major sections by time period, from prenatal to after or in between subsequent pregnancies, and also emphasized different key themes within each, such as banishing (sometimes unconscious) bias, and standardizing care.
What challenge did you overcome?
It was a priority for us to keep real patients’ lived experiences at the heart of the stories we told, and finding people who were comfortable talking about their personal experiences was one of our biggest challenges. We also wanted to highlight the experiences that birthing parents had across the continuum, from prenatal care through childbirth to the years after delivery. We ultimately ended up featuring two patients who were by then parents of toddlers. One had a relatively recent experience being diagnosed with postpartum depression during her son’s well-child visit. The other was a mother who we recontacted two years after initially working with her. Her life-threatening complication during childbirth was now a more distant memory, but speaking with her later helped us contextualize the outcome we wanted—for patients who may be at risk, to survive, thrive, and move on to grow their healthy families.
Contact:
Christina Smith
Christina.Smith@Pennmedicine.upenn.edu