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Learning Objective #1: describe the nurse call center process for facilitating calls for rural health care providers and triaging rural pregnant patients.

Learning Objective #2: explain the call trends of providers and patients and how this data assists in staffing and patient care.

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Access to high-risk obstetrical care can be a challenge in a rural state. Innovative programs are needed to provide rural patients' access to maternal fetal medicine (MFM) specialists. In 2004, a nurse facilitated call center which operated 24 hours a day 7 days a week, was developed through the ANGELS Program. The ANGELS program is an ground-breaking collaboration with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the Arkansas Department of Health and Humans Services to provide evidence-based care for pregnant women with Medicaid in Arkansas. One piece of the ANGELS program is a nurse facilitated call center. The experienced obstetrical nurses, who staff the call center, triage patients throughout the state, facilitate maternal transport calls and facilitate referral for high-risk obstetrical consults with MFMs. In a years time frame, over 2000 calls were received by the call center from pregnant or postpartum patients needing triage. The centralized nurse facilitated call center has improved access for providers and patients who live in rural areas of Arkansas. This presentation will detail call trends and how this data is used to coordinate care and staffing. Education and information are an important part of the telephone triage nurses' role, in addition to directing the women to the proper venue for treatment.