Rural L&D struggling. Any advice?

[OBERrural]

I recently started working in a rural critical access hospital. We currently have 1-8 deliveries a month; however, we would like to increase that rate. The problem we are facing is that our hospital currently has a bad reputation. The town next to us gets the majority of our deliveries. Currently we are trying to figure out what would bring people back to our town to deliver.

Does anyone have any ideas on how we can get people to decide to deliver with us. Do you work in a rural L&D and if so, what makes your patients choose to come to your hospital. Our rooms our beautiful, we have all the modern monitoring with an OB on staff for c-section. We have perks like a stork meal after delivery and we give out lots of freebies after delivery. We have life flight here in town if there was an emergency situation.

We have started working on small things like putting together a baby fair to bring the public in to see the unit. We are working on updating our website and hiring more doctors who deliver babies. I'd love to hear advice from others!

[mamagui]

Do you have any CNMs? Many women find a more natural approach but still in a medical environment appealing. You can offer tours, birthing classes, breastfeeding classes, and make flyers for such and leave them @ babies R us (if you have one around), local clinics, and on the cars in parking lots of such places. Have happy mothers write short synopsis of their experiences and add them to flyers; call a reporter from a local news station and see if they are interested in doing a story on your facility- they could talk about the benefits of birthing/ breastfeeding classes and come and film some of the participants and get their comments.

Hope this helps ;0

[AssociateDegree]

Offer nitrous oxide for labor analgesia. Offer water births.

[OBERrural]

Great advice. Thank you!

[OBERrural]

Associate degree, are you serious about nitrous? I've never heard of that and I've worked in big and small facilities.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Yes on the NO. It used to be used frequently, but there was not a company to supply it in the US again until the past year.

[AssociateDegree]

Go to YouTube and search for "nitrous oxide labor.". Since the re-introduction of NO to the US, many facilities are working on getting it or have already gotten it. Consumers are out there looking to go to hospitals that can provide them with nitrous oxide.

NO is safe. Has been used in Europe for decades. Not the same mix you get when you go to the dentist.

[OBERrural]

Thank you. I will look into that for sure.

[RunBabyRN]

What is the bad reputation related to? I would start there. Do you guys tend to do unnecessary interventions? Have a high c-section rate? Poor quality of care? Cold uncaring nurses? CNMs can be a great addition as well. I totally agree about water births- those are a premium in hospitals.

[queenanneslace, ADN, MSN, APRN, CNM]

Some rural hospitals around where I live were comparing notes regarding why one hospital had more deliveries than others - the administrators from one hospital did a study and found that the reasons for patients selecting Hospital A over Hospital B came down to:

- Availability of free WiFi - with huge bandwidth - throughout the facility

- The meal after the delivery.

I was kind of surprised because my assumption was that patients chose hospitals based on some awesome care provider or the modern decor or natural birth options. Some do, but at least according to this little survey - what mattered most to parents was free food and free wifi. These are not reasons that I would select a hospital to give birth in... but I guess I'm in the minority.

[mamagui]

Associate degree, are you serious about nitrous? I've never heard of that and I've worked in big and small facilities.

Our local birth center has NO2 available