Centering Groups and COVID-19

Thank you for this! Could you please post any general recommendation for holding our groups? Or, is the situation too diverse for general guidance?
Several health systems have varying responses for Centering here. 
Optimal health to you all!
My best from California,
Jo

I was just informed by one of our providers that the CDC is recommending canceling "group healthcare activities"

The CDC also recommends exploring alternatives to face-to-face visits.  Any suggestions of how to provide prenatal care without face to face visits?  Our office is looking into Telemedicine.

Can you let me know where this is cited? We are trying to decide if we are going to continue with groups under tight screening protocol... I'm erring on cancelling groups, but that makes things complicated too. 

In case you did not receive the email that went out from CHI last week, here's the content:

Dear Centering partners and friends,

There is no higher priority to the CHI team than the health and safety of our staff, healthcare partners and Centering families across the country. We appreciate that you are on the front lines and are grateful for the many ways each of you are caring for your communities. We are committed to closely monitoring the latest updates from the CDC and public health experts, communicating openly with you and doing everything we can to support your Centering practice.

The decisions about how to provide prenatal and well-child care in these uncertain times are complex. We wanted to make sure that everyone is aware of the CDC guidance related to groups and minimizing the chance for exposures. CHI recognizes that some of our partners may determine the best course, for now, is to pause groups. Others are continuing, employing a variety of strategies to keep patients safe and feeling calm and connected.

Our Practice Transformation team is meeting regularly to share best practices and is here to help you explore the decisions that are right for your practice. We can facilitate conversations around the challenges you are facing, including providing thought partnership around making the case for continuing care in groups, creative ways to connect and engage your group members or planning when you’re ready to restart groups - as you discern what may be best for your clinic. We encourage you to reach out to us and are very pleased to provide no-cost 1:1 consulting time with our Implementation Advisors. Please look for more details on this next week.

We know that flexibility is what our partners are looking for right now. Some practices in the early stages of implementation may need to postpone their steering committee work and scheduled facilitation training as other critical priorities are demanding your time and attention. We have adjusted our workshop policies and have cancelled all in-person events until April 15. Given the evolving nature of the pandemic, we will carefully reassess the situation in the coming weeks and share updates as they become available.

You have heard us say before that “wisdom comes from the group.” We sincerely hope that you will come together as a Centering community to learn from and support one another. We have created a thread in CenteringConnects and are hosting a special Circle Up on March 31, at 3pm ET. Please join us.

We appreciate all that you do and wish you, and your communities, our very best.

Angie

Our Health Center today has cancelled all groups, until further notice. From our Clinical Chief :
Providers at the midwifery centers are hopeful that telehealth will be employed for appropriate use. We already have these services in place, it is just not usually used for OB, as far as I know. I have heard of midwives using it elsewhere for contraceptive counseling and such. I am looking into using Zoom Meetings to connect patients for a virtual group for Centering teaching, but I do not think it would count as a billable encounter.

Our hospital has implemented restrictions on who can accompany patients at Labor & Delivery. They are allowed 2 support people and no children under age 13. It was first stated that the 2 people included the doula but it looks like they revised that and are allowing the doula to be considered part of the birth care team

Hello, 

My organization has also canceled groups for the next two weeks in spite of COVID-19. I know that the leaders of the consortium have suggested using Zoom to keep the Spring Consortium meeting in April, and now I'm reading on here that it can possibly be used for Centering too. I am wondering how and what will we do as far as data for the weeks that the groups are canceled thus far. My other concern is that schools are out for the next two weeks, which now they are saying it could be longer. I am worried that even if I am able to set up Zoom my patients won't be able to attend because of their children being at home and now parents are trying to keep with all the online classwork and homework. 

Wendy 

We will be sharing CenteringCounts guidelines for how to record attendance while groups are suspended very shortly! It will be possible to do this without affecting attendance rates.