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Post by John Craine on Jan 25, 2017 10:34:44 GMT -5
The Centering Coordinator is the Most Valuable Player on your Centering team. Yet some practices eschew this formal role, instead assigning all the coordinator duties to providers or other busy clinical staff without fully understanding the potential impact and ramifications. In 2014 I gave a brief presentation at a Group Prenatal Care conference in Rhode Island where I laid out the range of duties encompassed in the Centering Coordinator role and share it here. I would love to hear from our many Centering Coordinators in the field as to what you feel are the most important elements of your role. What do your administrators need to know when it comes time to creating budgets or allocating work hours? |
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amydonaldson63
WA - Washington Centering Consortium
#BOOM SITE VISIT APPROVED - Thank you Centering Healthcare
Posts: 83 
I work at a: Healthcare Facility
My job role is: Healthcare Provider
I am interested in Centering because: I want to make a difference in someones life for the better and help educate them about the better way of healthcare. I am passionate about what I do with our Centering Program at Kaiser Permanente. I love the lifelong friendships that I build while going thru the journey of pregnancy for all of my patients. I love the personal care that patients receive and I love to keep our groups fun and current. Coming up on being accredited for a year in Jan 2018 and we have grown so much. Already starting 2 groups a month starting Dec 2017, beat our goal to start 2 by a month. #MicDrop
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Post by amydonaldson63 on Jan 26, 2017 1:53:30 GMT -5
I love that you posted this! Being that I have been at my current job for 4 months and having experience with Centering Pregnancy at my previous job, I came to my new job with the understanding that I would take on a lot of the responsibilities, being I had experience, I took on the role of Centering Lead Coordinator. Knowing we had an upcoming site visit, I knew where we were at and what needed to be done. Don't get me wrong, was a bit of a challenge at times but with determination I got it done. VERY grateful to say that we were APPROVED today! I think someone in whatever clinic, someone who has the passion for Centering, should take the lead and I have learned the rest will follow. Without resistance even. I feel it is important in my situation anyway that I as Centering Lead Coordinator that I am involved in EVERY aspect of Centering, we are finally getting our groove, and our group numbers are increasing and my coworkers are happier. Meaning the other Co-Facilitators. There use to be about 7 ppl to schedule the conference room on a weekly basis, and it just wasn't working out so I just ask to meet with the manager of facilities (in charge of set up and take down) and I met with her and I brought her a 6 month calendar of the Centering we had coming up and told her thats when we needed the room. I informed her I would be taking over the scheduling of the conference room. After I had this meeting, I informed the girl who was doing it, and she was very grateful that I could take it off her plate. So what it now is, is I gave the manager of facilities our 6 month calander for Centering, she gave it to the girl that makes sure we have the room. Every Monday I call that girl who has our schedule and remind her what days that week we have Centering. She confirms, then she informs the mysterious man who sets up and EVERY time since I have taken this over, Centering has been set up exactly how it should be. I took it from 7 ppl being involved down to 3. It has been consistent the last 3 weeks and it makes me happy! To simplify ANY process will not only make a persons job easier as Centering Lead Coordinator but will ease the stress of your Co-Facilitators being frustrated and complaining because that is not an impression that we want to let our patients experience. I feel that if I am not involved in every aspect of Centering then that means I am out of the loop. So sometimes, if your role is Centering Lead Coordinator, you just have to take the bull by the horns and go with it. I am involved in a lot now. My manager had the admin assistant get me a purchasing (company credit card) to get things that are needed for Centering, reunions stuff, ect. Instead of telling Suzy to tell Joey ( you know what Im getting at). I think its a great idea. Sorry to babble on but I absolutely love Centering and I hope someone can find this post helpful. I would have to say that on of the BEST source of support and knowledge comes from this blog/website right here. Amazing ppl, amazing team and I encourage everyone to have their teams sign up as part of being a Co-Facilitator. It is going to be ENCOURAGED for my team to all sign up, during their upcoming training. Consistency and Communication is key and everyone should be on board and everyone should be in the loop.
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Ishana
New Member
Posts: 5
I work at a: Healthcare Facility
My job role is: Administrator
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Post by Ishana on Feb 2, 2017 14:00:53 GMT -5
The Centering Coordinator is the Most Valuable Player on your Centering team. Yet some practices eschew this formal role, instead assigning all the coordinator duties to providers or other busy clinical staff without fully understanding the potential impact and ramifications. In 2014 I gave a brief presentation at a Group Prenatal Care conference in Rhode Island where I laid out the range of duties encompassed in the Centering Coordinator role and share it here. I would love to hear from our many Centering Coordinators in the field as to what you feel are the most important elements of your role. What do your administrators need to know when it comes time to creating budgets or allocating work hours? Thank you so much for posting this! I will show it to our Centering Coordinator who is also our Assistant director of midwifery. She has so much on her plate with both the clinic and administrative aspect and I try to support and help as much as I can but it is hard when she is so busy. We have been making progress at our site, albeit at a slow pace but it is progress nonetheless. As Amy pointed out sometimes you really do have to grab the bull by the horn which is what I am currently trying to do. Our current centering space can only hold 6-7 patients (this is without significant others) so it is hard to create and sustain a solid group. The hospital is already short on space so our chances of obtaining a larger room is dismal. Our front desk staff who make the appointments are not trained and are not very supportive but we are doing our best to make it work. We have started 3 groups in the past 2 months but due to lack of staff we have to wait until these 3 groups are done before starting new ones which makes me so sad! As much as I am eager to help, I am only a clerk and there's only so much I can do. So, if anyone has any advice I would be very grateful! |
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amydonaldson63
WA - Washington Centering Consortium
#BOOM SITE VISIT APPROVED - Thank you Centering Healthcare
Posts: 83
I work at a: Healthcare Facility
My job role is: Healthcare Provider
I am interested in Centering because: I want to make a difference in someones life for the better and help educate them about the better way of healthcare. I am passionate about what I do with our Centering Program at Kaiser Permanente. I love the lifelong friendships that I build while going thru the journey of pregnancy for all of my patients. I love the personal care that patients receive and I love to keep our groups fun and current. Coming up on being accredited for a year in Jan 2018 and we have grown so much. Already starting 2 groups a month starting Dec 2017, beat our goal to start 2 by a month. #MicDrop
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Post by amydonaldson63 on Feb 3, 2017 23:52:24 GMT -5
Hey Ishana its Amy, what city are you in? Which clinic are you at if I may ask?
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Ishana
New Member
Posts: 5
I work at a: Healthcare Facility
My job role is: Administrator
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Post by Ishana on Feb 9, 2017 9:11:50 GMT -5
We are located at Brookdale Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York
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amydonaldson63
WA - Washington Centering Consortium
#BOOM SITE VISIT APPROVED - Thank you Centering Healthcare
Posts: 83
I work at a: Healthcare Facility
My job role is: Healthcare Provider
I am interested in Centering because: I want to make a difference in someones life for the better and help educate them about the better way of healthcare. I am passionate about what I do with our Centering Program at Kaiser Permanente. I love the lifelong friendships that I build while going thru the journey of pregnancy for all of my patients. I love the personal care that patients receive and I love to keep our groups fun and current. Coming up on being accredited for a year in Jan 2018 and we have grown so much. Already starting 2 groups a month starting Dec 2017, beat our goal to start 2 by a month. #MicDrop
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Post by amydonaldson63 on Feb 16, 2017 1:50:45 GMT -5
Hey Ishana, sorry just checking updated posts on here, I see you are admin but are you co-facilitating also? It sounds like your growth is on the right track, 3 groups in 2 months, is there a higher up that you could bring your numbers to and concerns to show them how important Centering is not only for the clinic but also for an awesome patient experience. The last few months has been a whirlwind and I tried and tried to figure things out with just myself and finally I just had to keep going above the person I had talked to before, if that didn't work I went the next step above that person. I had to be persistent because I am passionate about Centering and I love what it stands for. We don't have a designated space for Centering either but we do have a space that is shared and I make sure is scheduled weekly with the Conference room scheduler, since getting accredited by Centering Healthcare Institute , in January our groups are now starting out at 10-14 patients (yes patients) a few opt out but thats ok, its not for everyone but I have a feeling we are going to need to pick up another day of the week or something because things are definitely going in the right direction. Upper management had even requested a purchasing card ( corporate credit card) so I can take care of all the snacks and goodies for the patients reunions, decorations, pictures ect. I can tell you are also passionate about it, since your clinic offers Centering, I am sure there is a budget for it, it you can't start more groups because of staffing talk to management or upper management. Maybe there is a small budget to hire a part time Centering coordinator or something. I know you said your lead midwife has a lot on her plate, in my eyes it is my job to take some of that off their plate so they don't have to worry about the little things, they should just walk into the Centering room and start belly checks, not worry about snacks, supplies or anything. Feel free to message me anytime, Im no expert but I have some experience with Centering so I am here if you need to chat. -Amy  |
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amelchior
IN - Indiana Centering Consortium
Posts: 23
I work at a: Healthcare Facility
My job role is: Administrator
I am interested in Centering because: it has the potential to improve the lives of people in our community and is a fulfilling experience for healthcare providers!
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Post by amelchior on Nov 6, 2017 15:48:17 GMT -5
Thank you for sharing this information John. I am fortunate that my organization allows me to commit almost all of my time to Centering in our health systems. I help oversee the Centering practices at 6 of our FQHCs and work on strengthening and expanding the model. We have three additional sites we would like to eventually expand to and would like to engage our residents in the care model as well. My main responsibilities have been to: - Collect and analyze outcomes data including Centering Counts reporting
- Organize the Centering Steering Committee and meetings
- Represent our Centering practice to internal and external partners
- Provide education and training on the model
- Oversee enrollment processes
- Manage provider schedules
- Co-facilitate groups
- Attain and manage grant funding and reporting for grants
- Order and maintain supplies needed for Centering
I think the most important elements of my role are providing training and support for co-facilitators at each site and being a cheerleader for Centering practice throughout the health system.
Even when health systems have an individual to oversee Centering practice, it is all too easy for organizations to run into some of the common pitfalls. For me, it has been a lack of authority. I have been tasked with improving enrollment processes and retention rates, but none of the staff members at the individual sites are held accountable for adhering to the processes that have been outlined and I have had little input in evaluation. I've had difficulty with getting staff to adhere to opt-out practices and appropriate data collection and reporting. It is important for coordinators to have a say in the hiring and evaluation of employees who are involved with Centering practice. In a multi-site health system an empowered coordinator is important, but it is also important to develop Centering champions on site and to allot appropriate time for co-facilitators to devote to planning and conducting their group care visits. |
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Post by Tanya Munroe on Nov 7, 2017 8:58:27 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing this Amber, three cheers for the empowered coordinator!!
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