Washington state perinatal quality improvement expansion initiative - the washington state maternal mortality review panel (mmrp) found that, between 2014 and 2016, 60 percent of deaths related to…

Washington state perinatal quality improvement expansion initiative - the washington state maternal mortality review panel (mmrp) found that, between 2014 and 2016, 60 percent of deaths related to pregnancy were preventable. These deaths disproportionally affected non-hispanic black people, american indian and alaska native (AI/an) people, and people with medicaid coverage. The leading underlying cause of pregnancy-related deaths were behavioral health conditions related to suicide and accidental substance overdose; opioids were involved in most of the pregnancy-associated accidental overdoses. Reducing perinatal deaths from suicide and accidental overdose are priorities for improvement in washington state. The washington state perinatal collaborative (wspc) is a centralized point for perinatal quality improvement work and is poised to lead initiatives that improve perinatal and infant health outcomes. However, limitations in funding that impact organizational capacity have meant the collaborative has not yet had the resources necessary to make the kinds of systems-level impacts for which IT has the potential and membership. As the state prepares to publish its third maternal mortality review panel report in early 2023, and to implement recommendations from the report for the next three years, this is an optimal time for the wspc to grow its organizational capacity and act on critical recommendations to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity and eliminate existing racial and ethnic gaps. With this federal funding, over the next five years, we will enhance the wspc's capacity to implement quality improvement (QI) projects that make measurable improvements in the leading causes of maternal morbidity and mortality in washington state, including substance use disorder and suicide. We will increase the capacity of the wspc to rapidly identify new population-level perinatal QI initiatives with a focus on ensuring an equitable distribution of benefits and disseminate findings to a broad audience. During year 1, we will enhance the implementation and evaluation of the SUD collaborative. We will implement the following strategies and activities: 1. Build and strengthen capacity of pqcs to improve the quality of perinatal care statewide 2. Engage facilities statewide to improve perinatal outcomes 3. Integrate health equity and support facilities to implement QI initiatives 4. Build and strengthen data systems to improve identification and documentation of disparities 5. Engage patients/communities in QI initiatives 6. Build partnerships and conduct outreach and dissemination of QI results as a result of these activities, we will achieve the following period of performance outcomes: 1. Increase implementation of QI initiatives in facilities statewide including those that serve disproportionately impacted populations. 2. Increase implementation of QI initiatives to reduce/eliminate disparities. 3. Improve healthcare practices equitably.