The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health has announced that more than 200 hospitals are participating in the HHS Perinatal Improvement Collaborative in a contract with Premier Inc.
The network is focused on improving maternal and infant health outcomes by reducing disparities. Comprised of hospitals from all 50 states, the collaborative is the first to evaluate how pregnancy affects overall population health by linking inpatient data of newborns to their mothers.
A Premier Inc. analysis found that from 2008-2020, U.S. hospitals achieved a 15 percent decrease in delivery-related maternal deaths. Even with delivery-related deaths declining, however, the instance of severe maternal morbidity (SMM) increased. SMM is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as unexpected outcomes of labor and delivery that result in significant short-term or long-term consequences to a woman’s health. Premier’s analysis showed a 38 percent increase in SMM between 2008-2020, and, in particular, Black women had an 84 percent higher rate of SMM than white women.
The collaborative was developed as a part of the HHS Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Data and Analysis Initiative to enhance maternal health data, improve performance and strengthen evidence-based practices to improve maternal and infant health outcomes.
“We’re very excited the HHS Perinatal Improvement Collaborative allows us to obtain up-to-date maternal morbidity and mortality data that will inform program planning and policy development across HHS,” said Dorothy Fink, M.D., deputy assistant secretary for women’s health and director of the Office on Women’s Health, in a statement.
The collaborative’s approach includes capturing and integrating patient and clinical care data – from both mother and infant – to understand drivers of preventable harm and death and improve measurement and comparison across geographies and populations. Using these resources, the collaborative will implement and analyze evidence-based interventions to drive clinical quality improvement and advance health equity.
Each hospital in the collaborative will capture more than 150 measures to understand clinical and non-clinical factors that impact overall maternal and infant health outcomes with an overarching focus on health disparities. Specific areas of focus include hypertension and other disorders, infection and COVID-19.
The collaborative also will develop strategies to reduce persistent racial, ethnic, and geographic disparities and examine how care may be tailored to mothers with diverse needs.
The data is expected to shed new light on whether the direct causes of maternal morbidity and mortality increase a newborn’s risk of lifelong health challenges. The data will also aid in assessing whether existing health risks for women prevent future health problems for both women and their babies.
The effort will be supported by an external advisory panel comprising more than 20 expert clinicians and thought leaders, and patient partners from MoMMA’s Voices, a coalition of advocacy organizations focused on leading causes of maternal mortality and morbidity.
