The national Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) offers evidence-informed practice-based toolkits, called safety bundles, for use by birthing hospitals to improve maternal health safety outcomes and reduce disparities in obstetric care. In Massachusetts, the Perinatal-Neonatal Quality Improvement Network (PNQIN) facilitates widespread use of the bundles and the Betsy Lehman Center collects data about their usage from participating hospitals.
To date, PNQIN and the Betsy Lehman Center have offered support on the following AIM bundles:
Data from September 2022 through October 2023 shows Massachusetts birthing hospitals' use of the tools is growing across the state:
- All hospitals using the maternal equity bundle now have a designated equity team in obstetrics or reproductive health, up from 53% last year.
- The proportion of participating hospitals that consistently report process and outcome maternal health data stratified by race/ethnicity increased from approximately 25% to 67%.
- More patients with signs of severe hypertension during their hospitalization for childbirth received appropriate medication within one hour of the first severe blood pressure reading. This was true for both non-Hispanic, Black patients (up from 63% to 100%) and non-Hispanic, white patients (up from 64% to 79%) among participating hospitals.
- The percentage of hemorrhage risk assessments completed and documented in birthing charts increased from 89% to 100% for non-Hispanic, Black patients and from 96% to 98% for non-Hispanic, white patients at hospitals using the maternal equity bundle.
The Betsy Lehman Center and PNQIN will also support use of AIM's Perinatal Mental Health Conditions bundle in 2024.