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This is Christos with the
Becker's Healthcare Podcast.

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I'm thrilled today to be
joined by Kirsten Probar,

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patient care supervisor of lactation
program at Children's Minnesota.

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We connected with her to discuss the
health system's effort to provide mothers

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with breast pumps. Kirsten, thank
you so much for joining us today.

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Thank you for having me.
I'm thrilled to be here.

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Excellent.

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Could you please introduce yourself
and tell us about your background?

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Yes, absolutely. So I am
Kirsten Prova, as Chris said,

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I am currently the patient care
supervisor of one of our nurseries here at

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Children Minnesota, as well
as our lactation program.

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Prior to my supervisor role,

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I worked on our neonatal float team
here at Children's for a few years.

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I started at Children's as
a brand new, new grad rn,

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and so this has been my
career at Children's.

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I am very honored to be an employee here.

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Kirsten, as I mentioned,

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children's Minnesota has a program
to provide mothers with breast pumps.

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It's all part of your health equity
efforts over at Children's Minnesota,

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something that many hospitals health
systems speak about and want to get

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rolling. Uh,

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could you tell me how did the idea to
loan breast pumps to mothers involve,

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evolve,

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and what personal personnel rather and
resources have been needed to implement

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it?

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Absolutely, yes.

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Children's has a commitment to our
patient families to provide more equitable

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care. And so in that we now own
20 portable hospital grade breast

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pumps that are available to moms free of
charge while their child is here in our

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hospital at Children's
Minnesota. While in the hospital,

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many of our newborns aren't able to
breastfeed immediately after delivery,

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which leaves their moms dependent on a
pump to initiate and ma maintain that

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milk supply.

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And most breast pumps we realize are
designed to support an already existing

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milk supply,

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but it often takes that hospital grade
pump to really successfully start that

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milk supply if the newborn
is not at the breast.

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So our lactation consultants know
this and saw a gap where many of our

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patient mothers were unable to obtain
that hospital grade breast pump and were

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therefore struggling to make the milk
that they needed to feed their baby.

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So they saw that came
up with the solution,

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and then you asked what
personnel and resources.

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It was one of these programs that many,

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many people around the org touched in
order to get it from conception to launch.

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Um, our lactation team worked very
closely with our compliance team,

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our team from legal and finance,

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all to really make this program
become what it is today. Breast,

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a breast pump company will run a
rental program from themselves.

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Um, and we had looked into doing
that, but then really realized,

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wouldn't it be cool if
we could just run, like,

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if we could just purchase these pumps
outright and run the program ourselves so

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we're not dealing with an
outside vendor. So that's,

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we pioneered the hospital
owning the project, um,

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and really having this fleet at
our disposal versus going through

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an outside party.

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Kirsten,

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how many people have availed themselves
of the program so far and what's the

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feedback that been like?

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Yes, so we went live on March 1st
of this year, and since GoLive,

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we have completed 23 loan agreements
where the pump was loaned out,

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used and returned back to us,

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and those 23 pumps supported 29
neonates, which is so exciting.

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Um, on an average day,

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we would say between 75 to 85%
of our 20 pumps are loaned out,

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and the feedback has been
overwhelmingly positive. Um,

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we have had mothers who have unexpectedly
delivered early whose pump was not

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scheduled to be delivered
for a few more weeks.

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We've seen mothers who were using a
pump that was causing pain with pumping.

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Um, we were able to help a mom who is
here unexpectedly from out of town who

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delivered unexpectedly who did not have
access to the pump that she had back

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home.

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And all of those moms have just been so
thankful for the ability to use the pump

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and that it's helped with
their effective feeding,

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which has in turn created a good milk
supply for them to give their babies.

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Uh, as you said,

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it's only been about a couple of
months since you've had this program,

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but what have you learned
about the need to be flexible?

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Certainly you touched on
that a little bit, but yeah.

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What have you learned about what you
need to do with this program moving

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forward?

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Yes, absolutely. Since the
program is brand new, um,

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we are learning every day with the
needs that our moms have and how to meet

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them. And so each day that when we come
to work and work with these mothers,

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we are figuring out the needs that they
have and how we can best support them

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and make sure that this pump program
is helping them first and foremost.

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And so if that is bending to, um,

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the needs of when and where they need
to return the pump or how they need to

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pick the pump up, we are just
trying to make sure that it is, um,

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fair and equitable to all of the mothers
who have our pumps. And that really,

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at the end of the day, it is
benefiting their milk supply,

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which in turn is benefiting our
patients here at Children's Minnesota.

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How do you make sure that everything
is fair and equitable with the program?

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Yeah, absolutely. We,

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I think the biggest thing with learning
about being fair and equitable is that

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not every situation will look the same
because not every mother's situation is

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the same. And so really
with that health equity,

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it's not that every single person that
comes in will see these exact same,

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you know, step one, step two,

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step three because if we're
being equitable to them,

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we realize those steps may not
work for them. And so I think it's,

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it's been a learning opportunity for
all of us to know we design a program,

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you write out every single detail
and then you grow along the way.

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When you realize to meet these needs,

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they might not be returned in the
patient's room as we stated on the sheet.

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You know,

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it might be meeting the mom at their
next follow up appointment because she

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didn't have a ride to bring it in earlier
than that. And so knowing that, hey,

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we're gonna meet her where she is at
and we're still gonna get the pump back,

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and she still had the
opportunity to use it,

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but it is fair and equitable
than to all involved.

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That makes sense to me. Certainly.

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Were you able to draw from other programs
that are similar or as far as you

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know, were you starting
this all from scratch?

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We really started the pump rental
program from str, um, scratch,

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but we were able to draw from our,

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our compliance and legal team really
helped us with the outline of the program

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with other programs in the org when
it just came to generally, you know,

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how do you get a program
from conception to launch?

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They really were able to
walk us through step-by-step,

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here's what a loan agreement should
look like. And so in that regard,

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we definitely pulled from many
different areas of children's,

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but in regards to having
a pump loaner program,

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we really created it from the
ground up here at Children's.

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On the subject of healthcare equity.

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Do you know of any other programs at
Children's Minnesota now that you have the

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lactation program off the ground that
might be able to follow in its footsteps?

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Yes, absolutely. Children's Minnesota.

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We remain committed to health equity and
looking at this issue from all facets

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of care. Um, as the kid experts,

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that's what we call ourselves here we
are on a mission to champion these health

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needs of all of the children
and families in our community.

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One of another program that we
have is our neonatal virtual care,

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um, which is a program that
provides on demand care

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management for newborns that need that
immediate and acute stabilization and

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resuscitation.

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It allows for regional
and rural hospitals to

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electronically connect
with our neonatologists and
neonatal nurse practitioners

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here at Children's to immediately have
that connection to see and hear what is

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happening in their delivery rooms
and operating rooms to help in

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the moment.

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And that program launched in 2018 and
has had great success and we're really

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hoping to continue with that and help
grow that program to reach any other

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area hospital, be that in
Minnesota or Wisconsin,

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to provide that equitable care to ensure
that all of our neonates are getting

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that critical acute life-saving care
that they need right at delivery.

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Kirsten is certainly important
to speak about healthcare equity.

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As I mentioned before, it's a
subject that needs a spotlight.

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How has it become as big as it
is within Children's Minnesota?

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How has the awareness grown
and why is it so important?

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Yeah, absolutely. I do think,
as you said, it is, uh,

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an issue that deserves
the brightest spotlight.

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I think we are all realizing that we
all have areas that we can grow and do

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better as we learn about people.

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And Children's really puts that as the
forefront is as we learn about each

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individual patient and family
who walks through our doors,

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children's makes an effort to meet them
where they are and make sure that they

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are receiving the best care
possible. And so I just think we are,

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we're excited to be pioneers in this work.

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We're excited to have this be a forefront.

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We're excited about the ability
to be able to be highlighted here,

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to speak about the many efforts and
programs that we have that really help us

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meet our patient and
family where they're at.

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Ki thank you so much for
your time and insights today.

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If we look forward to
connecting with you soon.

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Thank you so much for having me.