HHS: 200 Hospitals Participating in New Maternal and Infant Care Collaborative
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office on Women’s Health announced the 200+ hospitals that are participating in the HHS Perinatal Improvement Collaborative, a contract with Premier, Inc. This new 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.
The HHS Perinatal Improvement 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. The collaborative advances HHS’ commitment to ensure the U.S. is one of the safest countries in the world to give birth.
“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, Office on Women’s Health.
The collaborative’s two-pronged 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.
To advance health equity, the collaborative will develop strategies to reduce persistent racial, ethnic, and geographic disparities and examine how care may be tailored to mothers with diverse needs. The end goal: Reduce risks for mothers and babies most susceptible to poor health outcomes.
The collaborative will investigate the outcomes of mothers and babies individually and together as a dyad. The data will 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.
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