Maternity Teams
PKB enables maternity services to replace fragmented, paper-based processes with one record, with the ability to share digital care plans, advanced branching questionnaires, remote monitoring, team-based messaging, and patient-driven data collection, all accessible through the NHS App. The pregnant person and families are empowered through direct access to their maternity information, while clinical teams benefit from improved communication, streamlined workflows, and better visibility throughout the pregnancy journey.
Current Problems
In-Person and Phone Overload: High volume of lengthy phone triage calls and face-to-face appointments.
Fragmented, Handheld Paper Notes: Reliance on vulnerable, 25-page paper folders that get lost, cause communication silos across hospitals and GP practices, and force women to repeat their history.
High Admin Burden: Massive administrative overhead managing appointment letters, routine lab queries, and manual milestone tracking.
Dissatisfied Patients: Fragmented systems leave parents feeling uninformed, unheard, and restricted by language or accessibility barriers and unempowered and involved in care decisions.
PKB Solution
Single Record: Integrates hospital and community systems to eliminate physical handheld paper notes.
Self-Referral Capabilities: Allow patients to onboard early to optimise first-trimester booking timelines.
Direct Data Access: Provides real-time visibility of test results, clinic letters and upcoming appointments
Birth Planning: Digitalising maternity care plans, including My Choices for Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond care plan template.
Advanced Questionnaires: Automatically sends smart-branching digital forms at critical weeks to remove clinical admin.
Secure Messaging: Enables patient-initiated, asynchronous communication for non-emergency questions.
Resource Library: Embedded library of approved resources.
Benefits
Reduced Administrative Burden: Automated milestone check-ins, digital letters, and test results, reduce phone calls.
Safer, Integrated Care: A single, continuous record recording allergies, birth plans, and past medical history.
Empowered Patients: True shared decision-making with continuous access to test results and personalised care plans.
True Interoperability: Bridges the gap between disjointed hospital and community systems.
Streamlined Experience: Consolidates care plans into a centralised branching questionnaire.
Automated Delivery: API automation removes manual burden, ensuring timely delivery to every patient.
Optimised Appointments: Gather health and birth preferences in advance, midwives can review the data, reducing repetition and maximising face-to-face clinical time.
Key PKB Feature
Advanced Questionnaires
Organisations can configure automated workflows, driven by APIs, to trigger smart-branching questionnaires directly into a woman’s PKB record at clinically appropriate stages throughout pregnancy and the postnatal period.
Key Benefits
Milestone-based automation: Questionnaires can be automatically dispatched at specific stages of pregnancy, after birth, or following key clinical events.
Smart branching logic: Questions dynamically adapt based on patient responses, helping identify symptoms and risks earlier.
Patient-initiated reporting: Women can complete questionnaires as needed throughout their pregnancy, enabling proactive self-reporting of symptoms or concerns.
Direct clinical integration: Responses are stored within the patient record and can be integrated seamlessly into clinical systems for monitoring, triage and escalation.
Remote monitoring support: Enables maternity teams to safely monitor women outside traditional appointments and prioritise those who need intervention.
Maternity Care Plans
Digital care plans, such as My Choices for Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond care plan, give parents access to a shareable and editable maternity care plan throughout their pregnancy journey.
Key Benefits
Women can access and share their care plan with everyone involved in their care.
Midwives and clinicians no longer rely on women bringing paper notes or care plans to appointments.
Care plans remain accessible across organisations and care settings.
Supports personalised and shared decision-making throughout pregnancy and birth.
Women identified with complications, such as high blood pressure in pregnancy, can be enrolled onto specific digital care pathways.
For example:
Symptom tracking
Team-Based Messaging
PKB enables secure communication between women and their maternity teams directly within the patient record.
Key Benefits
Women can message specialist teams securely.
Clinicians can provide timely advice, reassurance and follow-up.
Reduces reliance on phone calls and fragmented communication.
Supports continuity of care across community and hospital teams.
Provides a central communication record linked to the maternity pathway.
Library
PKB provides a central location for maternity information, guidance and personalised educational content.
Key Benefits
Access to trusted maternity information and local guidance.
Supports informed decision-making.
Reduces misinformation from external sources.
Information can be tailored to specific pathways or pregnancy stages.
Maternity Comms Example
When offering PKB to your maternity cohort, it's very important to give them information on how they can use their PKB record to manage their pregnancy and what key features the team are going to use with them throughout their pregnancy, ie care planning and the ability to message the team.
Workflow
Before PKB: ‘Patients were seen in hospital on a weekly basis for BP readings and Urinalysis. A lot of telephone calls from patients enquiring about their blood test results.’
After PKB: ‘Patients and midwives are easily able to monitor measurements and test results within PKB. It has reduced the number of phone calls and attendance into hospital from patients.’
Further Information
Maternity care plan templates: example of My high blood pressure in pregnancy and My Choices for Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond care plan and workflows
Maternity questionnaire template: first appointment questionnaire for pregnant women/parents to complete
Midwifery students getting real-life experience of using a Personal Health Record
Maternity Smart Goals: examples of SMART goals written by maternity teams