Clinical Component

Navigating the Clinical Component

This is a consultative maternal-fetal medicine practice. You see high-risk patients on referral from OB/GYNs, set the plan, and follow as needed while the referring OB remains the primary delivering provider. Day to day, the work is primarily outpatient clinic with light inpatient consult coverage.

A Consultative Model

You provide consults and ongoing high-risk management. You do not attend deliveries and do not carry overnight in-house obligations. Inpatient involvement is limited: you typically round about once a week when a patient is admitted, since the OB stays primary and most referred patients deliver under their own OB.

At North Central, a dedicated patient navigator coordinates high-risk admissions, builds the care plan on the chart, and pulls together consulting specialists. That support reduces the inpatient burden on the MFM and lets you focus on consults and scans.

Patient Population

The high-risk mix is led by a few common drivers:

• Advanced maternal age
• Hypertension
• Diabetes, both gestational and pre-gestational
• Fetal abnormalities and abnormal genetic screening referrals
• Multiple gestation
• Late-presentation pregnancies with little or no prenatal care

Diabetes referrals are common, and the practice supports them with one-on-one diabetic education in clinic.

Clinic Workflow

Clinic hours run roughly 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. A typical outpatient day is about 20 to 25 patients, a workable volume for a consultative MFM practice. Visit templates are structured to protect time for thorough scans and consults. In a recent high-volume month, the North Central team handled roughly 350 encounters and more than 300 scans without feeling overwhelmed, supported by experienced nursing and sonography staff.

Imaging and Procedures

The practice uses GE ultrasound equipment with the Viewpoint reporting system. MFM sonographers staff the clinic, and most are fetal echo certified.

Cerclage and similar procedures are optional and depend on the physician. The current group is consultative and does not routinely perform them, but privileges are available for a physician who wants to keep those skills active, and referring OBs would value that capability.

Genetic Services

Genetic testing and counseling are available, provided virtually.

Call

Call is shared between the MFM physicians and will be on a 1:3 rotation, Friday to Friday. The two current physicians switch off week after week: handoff is Friday morning, and you cover through the following Thursday night. Coverage is consultative and manageable:

• Daytime call is site-specific, covering only your own panel
• Evenings and weekends are shared across the group during your call week
• Most issues are handled by phone
• Inpatient rounding while on call runs roughly zero to four patients, with a personal maximum of four in a single day, across two hospitals
• Rounding is consolidated to Fridays when possible for flexibility

The two hospitals covered on call are North Central Baptist and St. Luke's, about 20 minutes apart in traffic.

Clinical Support

The practice is built around an experienced support team that drives efficiency:

• A dedicated MFM nurse who handles initial history taking and anticipates orders
• Medical assistants
• Two full-time MFM sonographers, most fetal echo certified
• An RN supporting diabetic education
• Front desk and clinic coordination

Technology

EMR: Athena

Ultrasound: GE with Viewpoint reporting

AI scribe tools are available, though the current group relies on its experienced nursing and sonography staff to keep clinic streamlined.