01
The Challenge
As maternity services consolidate across surrounding communities, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center serves families who may travel farther for care. The hospital needed to maintain maternal education, discharge preparation, lactation, and postpartum support while controlling staffing and operating costs.
The central challenge
How can one hospital extend consistent support across a growing region without creating another large internal department or technology project?
02
The BabyLiveAdvice Solution
BabyLiveAdvice became a virtual extension of Pomona’s maternity services, connecting families to education and support before hospitalization, during the hospital stay, and after they returned home.
- Before the hospital: childbirth and newborn education, breastfeeding preparation, prenatal education, and diabetes/nutrition support.
- At the hospital: group and individual discharge education, bedside lactation support, patient education, and identification of needs requiring escalation.
- After the hospital: postpartum follow-up, lactation, newborn education, maternal mental health support, care navigation, and referral back to appropriate clinical teams.
Patients can connect through hospital-specific links and QR codes embedded in existing communication channels, including MyChart messaging, websites, flyers, and discharge materials. BabyLiveAdvice manages registration, scheduling, visits, education, outreach, and virtual program operations—with minimal patient-facing IT build for Pomona.
03
Outcomes
The initial Pomona pilot demonstrated strong utilization and patient experience:
6,078
Booked visits
82.5%
Completed visits
4.85 / 5
Patient satisfaction (5785 surveys)
The program maintained education and post-discharge support following closure of Pomona’s internal Maternal Education Department. The hospital could continue serving families across its broader geographic region, while BabyLiveAdvice supported appropriate clinical escalation and coordination.
04
Return on Investment
Pomona transitioned from a labor-intensive maternal education structure to a scalable virtual care model. With an initial program investment equivalent to less than the annual cost of one full-time employee (FTE), the hospital preserved maternal education, discharge support, lactation services, and postpartum follow-up while reducing its fixed operating burden.
<1 FTE
Equivalent initial investment
700%
Reported return on investment
- Operating costs
- Lower fixed overhead through virtual service delivery
- Workforce capacity
- No equivalent internal department rebuild
- Technology investment
- Existing links, QR codes, and communication channels
Reported financial result: 700% return on investment. The model combined lower fixed overhead, expanded service capacity, and continued support beyond discharge.
- Workforce efficiency: continued services without rebuilding an equivalent dedicated internal department or expanding staffing in proportion to demand.
- Operating efficiency: consolidated education, discharge, lactation, and post-discharge support within one managed virtual program.
- Low technology lift: used existing hospital communication touchpoints instead of requiring a major patient-facing platform build.
- Regional scale: supported families beyond the hospital campus without requiring return travel for every appropriate service.
Bottom line
For an initial investment of less than one FTE equivalent, Pomona expanded maternal care across its region and reports a 700% return on investment.