A health care program at the University of Kentucky expands to bring high-risk obstetric care to rural Kentucky.
UK HealthCare has made it a mission to keep patients as close to home as possible for medical treatment. That’s where the Blue Angels Program comes in. Dr. John O’Brien is the director of Maternal Fetal Medicine “The Blue Angels Program was developed to try to bring higher levels of care to women in rural Kentucky. Pregnancies that were diagnosed with particular concerning abnormalities or there was a need to screen for abnormalities and we need to bring that higher level of care closer to their homes”
Dr. O’Brien says before Blue Angels, patients who needed high-risk consultations had to either set up an appointment and drive to Lexington, or wait for results of tests done locally to be shipped to Lexington and assessed. That meant patients and specialists weren’t meeting face-to-face to have important questions asked and answered. It also meant there was a greater chance that tests had to be repeated, costing more money and more importantly, valuable time to treat patients.