Success Stories

  1. Newborn Home Visitation
  2. Supporting Families in Crisis
  3. HANDS Pediatric Dental Clinic
  4. Easter Seals' Early Steps
  5. PACE Center for Girls

Newborn Home Visitation Program

Healthy Start

During a home visit with a first time mom who delivered by cesarean section, the RN noted an elevated blood pressure of 152/93. The patient was currently taking Labetalol 100 mg twice a day since her discharge from the hospital. The patient denied headache or visual disturbances, which are cardinal signs of high blood pressure. After reviewing signs and symptoms of elevated blood pressure with the patient, the RN instructed her to follow up with her OB the next day at her regularly scheduled appointment. The RN scheduled a second follow-up home visit to recheck the blood pressure.

The doctor doubled patient’s blood pressure medicine to 200 mg twice a day. However, at the second home visit, a recheck of the blood pressure revealed the following results: BP 165/112 and 164/111. The RN phoned the midwife on call to advise her of increased blood pressure. The midwife received orders from the doctor who increased medication yet again to 300 mg twice a day. RN instructed patient to take her medicine as ordered and to follow up with the doctor the next day.

Elevated blood pressure during the first six weeks after birthing a baby can occur in women with no prior history. The home visit program helps identify women with high blood pressure and facilitates coordination of care with the healthcare provider. In this particular case, even though the hospital discharged the patient with blood pressure medicine AND even though her doctor doubled the dosage after the first RN home visit, the second follow up visit by the RN identified continued high blood pressure.

The second home visit provides in-home follow-up to mothers with high blood pressure and infants with feeding problems, jaundice, respiratory distress, potential sepsis and infection, weight loss, preterm/early term, pyloric stenosis. With the second home visit, this patient received the medical intervention she needed without a visit to the Emergency Room or readmission to the hospital.