Crossing Rivers Health Clinic adds obstetrics to its services
Dr. Steven Bush
Matthew Olson, M.D., Owen Vincent, D.O, and Terri Payne, R.N., certified nurse midwife, comprise Crossing Rivers Health’s obstetrical and prenatal team.
By Correne Martin
Crossing Rivers Health Clinic providers extended obstetric services to the community Nov. 2. They are thrilled to be guiding women and their families from the beginning of pregnancy through delivery, postpartum care and the growing stages of family health care.
Team providers include Steven Bush, M.D., chief medical officer, CRH Center for Specialty Services OB/Gyn and OB team consultant; Owen Vincent, D.O., family medicine with obstetrics; Matthew Olson, M.D., family medicine with obstetrics; and Terri Payne, R.N., certified nurse midwife and family nurse practitioner.
The conversation began in late summer 2015 regarding Crossing Rivers Health Clinic’s decision to bring these additional services to southwest Wisconsin and northeast Iowa.
“We’ve been building a good group of providers who will provide families ease in the process. Deliveries will start early in the new year,” Dr. Olson stated.
“We saw there was a need and we threw it out there to the providers, to gather their opinions, because taking on obstetrics means you’re on call and available to your patients more often,” Dr. Bush added. “I think what makes us unique is the types of providers we have. No other group in the area has an OB-Gyn as part of their team. That gives us different consulting abilities with our patients.”
For pregnant women who may be a little more at risk than others, Bush is proud that “they won’t necessarily have to go out of town anymore.”
“We offer women whatever they’re looking for—whether it’s no medication, all natural, or services such as an epidural,” noted Payne, who, as a nurse midwife for the past nine years, approaches pregnancy from a more labor support perspective than her colleagues. She also offers her service to a broader base of patients, as she spends time in the Fennimore CRH Clinic as well. Payne said, altogether, the Crossing Rivers Health Clinic’s obstetrics team is highly focused on family-centered care. She continued, “It’s important we keep access to this type of care in our rural communities.”
“The relationship between a provider and patients is probably one of the most intimate and very long lasting,” vouched Dr. Vincent. “It’s also typically the anchor to family care moving forward.”
“We’re happy to be making sure women who want to become moms are taken care of in terms of their own birthing plan preferences, from before pregnancy and well after,” Dr. Olson said.
With the clinic’s addition of obstetrics, it’s providers can remain on-site as they utilize the state-of-the-art birthing unit at the new Crossing Rivers Health medical center. This includes a private, spacious labor and delivery suite, fetal monitoring, cutting-edge labor equipment and support, an international board certified lactation consultant (Mandy Pettit, R.N., M.S.N.), an infant security system, a follow-up home visit by an RN, and more.
Once labor begins, mothers stay in the same room for the birth of their baby and through the first hours of the recovery period. Moms who deliver by cesarean section are cared for in a surgical suite before they’re assigned a residential room. Rooming with your baby, kangaroo care or skin-to-skin contact after birth, newborn feeding support and parental coaching are all services offered as well, in addition to childbirth and parenting classes before and after the baby’s arrival.
“We’re very excited (about the birthing unit features),” Dr. Olson commented. “It’s an open, airy, inviting and comfortable place to be. More important is how excited our staff is in providing care with the most modern equipment available.”
Dr. Vincent added, “It’s changed the perspective of our clinic to handle a greater variety of services.”
To learn more about these providers, visit crossingrivers.org.
Obstetrical care is provided at Crossing Rivers Health Medical Center by providers from both Crossing Rivers Health Clinic and Mayo Clinic Health System-Prairie du Chien. For a complete list of providers offering obstetrical care at Crossing Rivers Health medical center, choose “Find a Provider” at crossingrivers.org
