Mount Sinai Medical Center: Elevating Maternal Care Through Innovation

Introduction 

Mount Sinai Medical Center is the largest private, independent, not-for-profit teaching hospital in Florida and a proud leader in maternal and newborn care. Offering a full spectrum of services across Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties, the health system includes multiple hospital and outpatient locations and three emergency centers. At the Miami Beach campus, a high-acuity labor and delivery unit manages approximately 2,300 births each year. 

A Foundation of Intentional Quality 

For Kylie Rowlands-Perez, DNP, Assistant Vice President of Maternal Health at Mount Sinai Medical Center, quality has never been aspirational — it is a foundational principle that guides every initiative. Under her leadership, Mount Sinai’s labor and delivery team has long pursued excellence with intention by advancing statewide perinatal programs, monitoring core measures, and continuously refining internal practices to uphold high standards of care. 

However, like many health leaders confronting rising maternal morbidity and mortality rates across the United States, Dr. Rowlands-Perez faced a critical question: How can we prevent the next adverse outcome from happening? 

The consequences of poor outcomes extend far beyond metrics. They are devastating for families, emotionally taxing for care teams, and carry significant organizational risk. With a focus on prevention and continuous improvement, Dr. Rowlands-Perez attended a perinatal innovation session in 2019 where she encountered a solution that would soon strengthen how Mount Sinai identifies, monitors, and responds to emerging risk in labor and delivery. 

“When I saw what Vigilance could do, I was amazed,” Dr. Rowlands-Perez recalled. “I had never seen such an innovative solution — one that could actively identify and monitor emerging trends for both the mom and the baby.” 

Unlike traditional surveillance tools, PeriWatch Vigilance is an advanced early warning system for obstetrics that continuously analyzes maternal and fetal data to identify potentially concerning risk patterns in near-real time. This empowers care teams to act sooner and with greater confidence when complications arise. 

As PeriWatch Vigilance was evaluated across clinical and operational teams, its value resonated at multiple levels of the organization. Risk management, physicians, and senior leadership aligned around its ability to strengthen safety, visibility, and confidence in labor and delivery care — and the software was soon approved for implementation.  

Navigating Change and Driving Adoption 

Dr. Rowlands-Perez approached implementation as a change-management effort first, not just a new technology rollout. In partnership with PeriGen, she focused on preparing her team for new workflows through structured training delivered ahead of go-live, blending in-person and virtual education as Mount Sinai navigated the onset of COVID-19. 

She anticipated that adoption would unfold at different paces across the labor and delivery team — and she was correct. Some staff embraced the technology quickly while others required additional time, reinforcement, and support. “Change is hard for everybody,” she admitted. “As a leader, what matters most is staying present, listening to concerns, and helping teams build confidence over time.” 

To reinforce lasting adoption, Dr. Rowlands-Perez designated clinical super-users, set clear expectations, and prioritized ongoing retraining and optimization to ensure the technology became embedded in daily practice. Once staff began to see the results firsthand, they soon shifted from cautious adopters to confident advocates. 

Earlier Intervention Leads to Measurable Impact 

While no single tool drives outcomes alone, Vigilance soon contributed to meaningful change at Mount Sinai. Since implementation, the unit has achieved sustained reductions in uterine tachysystole — dropping to less than 2% — along with earlier and more consistent intrauterine resuscitation, fewer unexpected NICU admissions, and more stable newborn transitions. With fewer urgent separations and more immediate skin-to-skin contact, the team also observed an encouraging trend: higher exclusive breastfeeding rates. 

At the bedside, Vigilance has boosted clinical confidence by complementing clinicians’ knowledge and judgment. By making emerging risk clearer and more standardized, the platform has helped nursing staff, especially those newer to labor and delivery, interpret fetal monitoring with greater clarity and respond more decisively.  

“I’ve watched Vigilance empower nurses to speak up and really advocate for their patients,” said Dr. Rowlands-Perez. “Seeing your team grow like that is such a great feeling. When I can head home at night knowing they’ve truly got it, that’s one of the biggest wins for any leader.” 

As a nurse leader, the tool has also given Dr. Rowlands-Perez more strategic insights into the big picture. Instead of relying on retrospective chart audits and manual reviews — what she calls “detective work” — she now has access to detailed dashboards and daily reports that surface trends as they happen, which in turn enables her to guide her team toward changes that deliver the greatest impact. It’s a shift to the kind of proactive leadership that clearly demonstrates Mount Sinai’s commitment to digital innovation and smarter, safer care. 

Hospital-Wide Excellence in Digital Care 

In 2025, Mount Sinai Medical Center achieved HIMSS EMRAM Stage 7, the highest level of digital maturity recognized by HIMSS. The designation reflects how deeply digital systems are embedded into patient safety, clinical decision-making, and care coordination across the organization, including in high-acuity areas like labor and delivery. Using Vigilance as a case study, Mount Sinai demonstrated how advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, can drive change, improve quality, and deliver safer care — particularly for one of healthcare’s most vulnerable populations: mothers and babies.  

“We’re using technology and artificial intelligence to help drive safer care, especially for mothers and babies who are so often left in the background,” said Dr. Rowlands-Perez. “This brings them to the forefront.” 

This recognition reflects a hospital-wide culture of continuous improvement, where clinicians are empowered, care is standardized, and teams are equipped with the tools they need to deliver safer, more consistent outcomes. For patients and families, this translates to fewer emergencies, smoother deliveries, and more opportunities for early bonding during the critical first moments after birth. At Mount Sinai, innovation is not a one-time achievement — it is embedded into every aspect of care delivery, setting a new standard for maternal and fetal safety. 

For more information, please visit msmc.com/obstetrics-and-gynecology.