Evaluating the Impact of Telehealth Prenatal Care at a Federally Qualified Health Center.

Publication date: May 21, 2026

During the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians had to reimagine perinatal care. Mary’s Center, a federally qualified health center, built an innovative telehealth group prenatal care (T-GPNC) program to ensure equitable and safe access to health care. T-GPNC includes an individual telehealth assessment and group education. We conducted a program evaluation to determine the adequacy of prenatal care for T-GPNC clients compared with individual prenatal care (IPC) clients and to describe client satisfaction with T-GPNC. This mixed-methods study included a retrospective chart review of electronic health records of Spanish-speaking midwifery clients at Mary’s Center between July 1, 2021, and August 31, 2023, and client satisfaction surveys for T-GPNC. The T-GPNC intervention was offered only to Spanish-speaking clients in this timeframe. Our main outcome of interest was the adequacy of prenatal care, measured by generating an Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index. We conducted a thematic analysis of the surveys that included open-ended and categorical questions. The study sample for adequacy of prenatal care included 141 T-GPNC and 193 IPC clients. The majority of clients were Latinx, and 97. 9% received public insurance or were uninsured. T-GPNC clients were significantly more likely to receive adequate or adequate-plus care at 67. 9% compared to 39. 1% for IPC clients (χ(2) = 45; P

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