DESOTO COUNTY, Fla. — Tampa Bay 28 is getting a first-hand look at training for EMS agencies and hospital staff specifically in rural counties.
The goal of the Obstetrical Transitions of Care course is to make sure it is better prepared to handle maternal and newborn emergencies.
Watch report from Lauren St. Germain
The drive to Desoto County featured farmland, green space, and land far away from the hustle and bustle of the big Florida cities.
Tampa Bay 28 Anchor Lauren St Germain met Desoto Fire Rescue Training Captain John Haney and his family outside Desoto Memorial Hospital.
"You have two very personal experiences that really highlight the need for this kind of training right now," St. Germain said.
Captain Haney responded, "One—I am a firefighter paramedic, and I’ve assisted in and conducted field deliveries and two more personally. Both my daughter and youngest son here were born outside of the hospital."
His daughter was born at home, not on purpose.
"The rescue crew came in, and we delivered my daughter right there on the couch," said Capt. Haney.
His youngest son was born in the back of the Desoto County Fire Rescue Unit.
Inside Desoto Memorial Hospital, Capt. Haney is one of the several medical professionals from EMS agencies to hospital staff learning how to best handle maternal and newborn emergencies.
Colleen Reiner explained, "In a lot of the rural communities in the state, there may not be a labor and delivery unit that’s readily available so that makes it a little bit challenging for mothers, because even if you have the best laid plans, you’re going to travel to go to a hospital with a L&D unit sometimes life has different plans. When that baby is coming, that baby is coming."
She is the Director of Education & Research Administration at the USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS), which is one of the programs putting on the training.
St. Germain also spoke with Lori Reeves who is the executive director of the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative. It’s another program bringing this training to fruition.
"The FPQC works with maternity hospitals and over the years we have noticed there are fewer maternity hospitals than there used to be. Quite a bit fewer actually," said Reeves.
"Every time a hospital closes a maternity unit or a whole hospital closes, sometimes another hospital will open in the state, but what we are seeing is they are not opening in those rural communities and so overtime the hospitals that provide maternity services have kind of shifted to the more urban areas of the state and left the rural areas with fewer maternity resources," said Reeves.
Reeves gave St. Germain a map the FPQC put together. It labels urban and rural counties in the state and where the current maternity hospitals are, showing how many women living in these rural counties have to drive long distances to get to a maternity hospital.
"What we know is if you live 45 minutes or 50 minutes or more from a hospital with maternity facilities and you have an emergency, you may not always be able to get to that hospital first so that means you may call 911 or you may go to your local hospital and receive care there," said Reeves.
“And from your house to Advent Sebring, where your wife was going, about how many miles?” asked St. Germain.
“About 45 minutes, 28 miles, about 45 minutes,” Haney replied.
Reeves said, "So, the effort of this project working with our partners is to make sure that if they call 911 or they go to one of these small hospitals, those sites and teams are equipped to provide the care that they need and get them to the maternity hospital safely."
Captain Haney said, "Having a more in-depth knowledge of how to deal with OB emergencies is really crucial whenever you can’t have a five-minute transport to an OB facility."
The training also includes information about referring patients to the Florida Telehealth Maternity Care program, to get more prenatal and postpartum services for women. Reeves and Reiner reiterate to St Germain the goal of the program is getting women in the state the care they need, no matter where they live.
Desoto Memorial was the third place they brought this training and the first one in Tampa Bay 28’s viewing area. They already identified several more sites for the rest of the year and are looking for more locations in 2027. For more information click here.
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