Sara C. Handley

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Sara Handley, MD, MSCE

Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Dr. Handley is a health services researcher focused on evaluating the impact of the perinatal health care system on outcomes. Perinatal factors in her research include regionalization (i.e. levels of care), organizational culture (i.e. patient-centered care), and neonatal care processes.

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Bio

Dr. Handley is an epidemiologist and health services researcher who focuses on the perinatal health care system and its impact on perinatal outcomes and outcome variation. Perinatal health system factors in her research include perinatal regionalization (i.e. levels of care, risk-appropriate care delivery, birth volume), organizational culture (i.e. perinatal patient-centered care), and neonatal care processes (i.e. resuscitation, umbilical cord management at birth). Her research leverages population-based datasets with high-generalizability to understand the landscape of care delivery as well as targeted surveys to gain insight into specific aspects of organizational culture or unit level care practices.

Dr. Handley has expertise on the integration of organizational theory into perinatal research. Organizational theory and practice suggest that organizational culture (the shared beliefs, perceptions, and values in an organization) drive outcomes and outcome variation. Following this line of inquiry, Dr. Handley developed a scale to measure the culture of perinatal patient-centered care in the hospital setting, which will aid in the study of organizational factors in perinatal care and identification of potential improvement opportunities.

Although trained as a neonatologist, Dr. Handley is interested in the interrelated health of the infant and mother. Her studies consider the intersection and interaction of organizational factors in maternal and neonatal care and the impact on the mother, infant, and mother-infant dyad as a whole. She conducts this work in conjunction with colleagues and experts in neonatology, maternal-fetal medicine, biostatistics, and health care management.