2010 Salute to Health Care Honoree: Dr. Meera Scarrow

The far-reaching needs of pregnant women presented a special challenge for Dr. Meera Scarrow, medical director of women’s services at St. John’s Health System and section chair of obstetrics and gynecology for St John’s Clinic.

Scarrow found that many women face issues, such as financial difficulties or substance abuse, that affect their pregnancies.

“In a private office setting, we don’t have the resources for nontraditional needs,” Scarrow says. “We don’t have full-time social workers.”

Last year, Scarrow, approached Jordan Valley Community Health Center, which provides care for medically underserved populations, including the uninsured, to collaborate on a more extensive prenatal care program. A new program, Our Healthy Start, grew from that collaboration in December 2009. A nurse practitioner sees patients, with program oversight by Scarrow and Dr. David Redfern, a fellow OB/GYN with St. John’s Clinic.

Redfern credits Scarrow with doing the legwork to make the program a reality.

“It would not be as successful without her,” he says. “She had a dream to work with a part of the community which is unreached.”

In addition to a bachelor’s degree in political science and biology, Scarrow holds both a medical degree and a law degree from Case Western University in Cleveland. In 2002, Scarrow completed an OB/GYN residency at Magee-Womens Hospital at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

In 2008, she helped develop an obstetrics hospitalist program at St. John’s Hospital and is part of a team of doctors who provide around-the-clock labor and delivery services to patients who have no primary physician or physicians who are temporarily unavailable.

By the end of the year, Scarrow plans to offer self-care and education discussion groups through Our Healthy Start. The group sessions are part of a prenatal model called Centering, which allows doctors and patients to assess and address needs to develop healthy families.

“She played a major role in getting that going and giving us the vision for it,” says Dr. Chan Ngo-Reyes, medical director for Jordan Valley Community Health Center, of Scarrow’s pivotal role in establishing Our Healthy Start.

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