Overview
Researchers examined how a hemorrhage quality improvement collaborative influence racial disparities in severe maternal morbidity (SMM) from hemorrhage via conducting a cross-sectional study from 2011 to 2016 among 99 hospitals that engaged in a hemorrhage quality improvement collaborative in California. The quality collaborative focussed on implementing the national maternal hemorrhage safety bundle comprising of 17 evidence-based recommendations for practice and care processes known to improve outcomes. For this analysis, the inclusion of 54,311 women was done from the baseline period (January 2011 through December 2014) and of 19,165 women from the postintervention period (October 2015 through December 2016) with a diagnosis of obstetric hemorrhage during delivery hospitalization. Outcomes revealed reduced rates of SMM due to hemorrhage in all races in correlation with the implementation of a large-scale quality improvement collaborative; further, there was a reduction in the performance gap between Blacks and Whites. This supports that disparities for care-sensitive acute hospital-focused morbidities could be reduced with improving access to highly effective treatments.
Authors: Main, E. K., Chang, S., Dhurjati, R., Cape, V., Profit, J., & Gould, J. B.
Publication Date: January 21, 2020
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2020.01.026