Maternal Safety

In Ohio, an average of 21 women die each year due to pregnancy or delivery complications. Considerable racial disparities exist, with Ohio black women more than two and a half times as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications as white women. Severe maternal morbidity (SMM) occurs at a much higher rate, occurring in 143 per 10,000 deliveries in 2013.

The Ohio Department of Health’s (ODH) Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review (PAMR) indicates that more than half of these deaths and events are preventable. Hypertension has been cited nationally as potentially being the most preventable for severe maternal morbidity and mortality.

OPQC is providing Quality Improvement support on the AIM (Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health) Hypertension Quality Improvement Project (QIP). The Ohio Maternal Safety QIP aims to reduce the rate of severe maternal morbidity and mortality associated with hypertension in pregnancy and postpartum, reduce disparities, and implement clinical best practices and QI tools for treating maternal hypertension.

A recent publication highlights this successful statewide effort.

Resources

• Maternal Safety Toolkit: Best Practices in Hypertension

Publications

Schneider, P., Lorenz, A., Menegay, M. C., Afflitto, S., Lamb, E., Cossler, N., Dixon, K., Gibson, K., Lannon, C., Fuller, S., Ford, S., Oza Frank, R., Everett, R., & Lappen, J. R. (2023). The Ohio Maternal Safety Quality Improvement Project: Initial Results of a Statewide Perinatal Hypertension Quality Improvement Initiative Implemented During the COVID-19 Pandemic. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology MFM, 100912. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajogmf.2023.100912