Enhancing Patient Care: A Year of Expansion and Impact - Annual Report 2023

Planned Parenthood of Southern New England (PPSNE) continues to forge paths that prioritize addressing critical disparities in health care access. We were excited to welcome a new Medical Director to the team this year and, under her leadership, to expand and deepen the work of our care navigation program

Dr. Ayiti Maharaj-Best joined PPSNE as our new medical director in February of 2023. Dr. Best provides oversight to our clinical services alongside Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Nancy Stanwood. As a Family Physician, with a broad range of expertise, her hiring marked a strategic move towards enhancing patient care and expanding services. 

She has played a critical role in the creation of the Gender Affirming Care Navigator position and the development of the Abortion Care Navigator role. Her leadership has not only steered the organization through operational changes but has also helped us bolster our patient-first approach, ensuring that each individual receives personalized and compassionate care.

The challenges presented by the changing landscape of abortion care, compounded by external factors like the fall of Roe, led to the addition of an Abortion Care Navigator, dedicated to guiding patients through the complexities of accessing abortion care. The Abortion Care Navigator partners with patients to navigate financial, logistical and legal barriers to ensure each patient’s unique needs are met in a timely and compassionate manner.

We also hired our first GAC Navigator to bolster our efforts to make gender affirming care (GAC) more accessible, despite an increasingly hostile national climate. 

The GAC Navigator helps guide patients through the insurance and pharmacy barriers, legal name and gender marker changes, and referrals to gender-affirming surgeons and other specialists. The navigator not only elevates the quality and efficacy of the patient experience at PPSNE, but also contributes to the scalability of our GAC program, which is currently PPSNE’s fastest growing service line. 

The Gender Affirming Care Navigator is an essential addition to advancing our commitment to provide affirming and accessible care, no matter what. 

The future of care at PPSNE, made possible through your generous support, holds the promise of continued expansion and impact, ensuring that each patient receives the personalized support they deserve. PPSNE continues to navigate the complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic and a post-Roe world and our strategic decisions, exemplified by the addition of specialized care navigators, showcase our resilience as an organization and our commitment to providing the highest quality of care.