Lower C-section rates, faster deliveries, and less physician burnout: could the OB hospitalist model deliver all three? In this episode of BackTable Women’s Health, host Dr. Nicole Faulkner interviews Dr. Maliha Sayla, a board-certified OBGYN and medical director of labor and delivery at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital, to explore how the OB hospitalist model is reshaping care for physicians, patients, and healthcare systems.

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Timestamps

00:00 - Introduction
03:27 - Why Hospitalists Matter
05:33 - How Their Model Works
07:15 - Managing Pushback
10:18 - Measuring Better Outcomes
15:58 - Drills and Emergencies
19:50 - Staffing and Transition
24:33 - ROI and OB-ED
26:33 - Residents and Teaching
30:52 - Future Flexible OB Careers
34:14 - Patient Acceptance of Model
36:47 - Collaboration and Lifestyle Balance
40:00 - Conclusion

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More about this episode

Dr. Sayla shares her journey from traditional private practice to full-time OB hospitalist work, explaining how this model reduces physician burnout by making labor and delivery a dedicated role rather than one juggled alongside clinic visits, surgeries, and administrative responsibilities. She details her institution’s staffing structure, where hospitalists provide continuous labor and delivery coverage, allowing generalist OBGYNs to focus on outpatient care. Dr. Sayla highlights the benefits of having dedicated physicians available for bedside counseling, fetal monitoring, and real-time decision-making. The episode explores improvements in communication, collaboration, and patient outcomes, including lower NTSV (Nulliparous, Term, Singleton, Vertex) cesarean rates and shorter induction-to-delivery times after adopting the hospitalist model. Additionally, she discusses the hospitalist role in obstetric emergency preparedness and interdisciplinary collaboration, patient perspectives, and the potential of hospitalist programs to address OBGYN workforce shortages.

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BackTable Women's Health is the go-to podcast for gynecologists, gynecologic surgeons, and other healthcare professionals focused on women’s health.

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