Background Obstetric hemorrhage is the leading cause of severe maternal morbidity and of preventable maternal mortality in the United States. The California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative ...developed a comprehensive quality improvement tool kit for hemorrhage based on the national patient safety bundle for obstetric hemorrhage and noted promising results in pilot implementation projects. Objective We sought to determine whether these safety tools can be scaled up to reduce severe maternal morbidity in women with obstetric hemorrhage using a large maternal quality collaborative. Study Design We report on 99 collaborative hospitals (256,541 annual births) using a before-and-after model with 48 noncollaborative comparison hospitals (81,089 annual births) used to detect any systemic trends. Both groups participated in the California Maternal Data Center providing baseline and rapid-cycle data. Baseline period was the 48 months from January 2011 through December 2014. The collaborative started in January 2015 and the postintervention period was the 6 months from October 2015 through March 2016. We modified the Institute for Healthcare Improvement collaborative model for achieving breakthrough improvement to include the mentor model whereby 20 pairs of nurse and physician mentors experienced in quality improvement gave additional support to small groups of 6-8 hospitals. The national hemorrhage safety bundle served as the template for quality improvement action. The main outcome measurement was the composite Centers for Disease Control and Prevention severe maternal morbidity measure, for both the target population of women with hemorrhage and the overall delivery population. The rate of adoption of bundle elements was used as an indicator of hospital engagement and intensity. Results Compared to baseline period, women with hemorrhage in collaborative hospitals experienced a 20.8% reduction in severe maternal morbidity while women in comparison hospitals had a 1.2% reduction ( P < .0001). Women in hospitals with prior hemorrhage collaborative experience experienced an even larger 28.6% reduction. Fewer mothers with transfusions accounted for two thirds of the reduction in collaborative hospitals and fewer procedures and medical complications, the remainder. The rate of severe maternal morbidity among all women in collaborative hospitals was 11.7% lower and women in hospitals with prior hemorrhage collaborative experience had a 17.5% reduction. Improved outcomes for women were noted in all hospital types (regional, medium, small, health maintenance organization, and nonhealth maintenance organization). Overall, 54% of hospitals completed 14 of 17 bundle elements, 76% reported regular unit-based drills, and 65% reported regular posthemorrhage debriefs. Higher rate of bundle adoption was associated with improvement of maternal morbidity only in hospitals with high initial rates of severe maternal morbidity. Conclusion We used an innovative collaborative quality improvement approach (mentor model) to scale up implementation of the national hemorrhage bundle. Participation in the collaborative was strongly associated with reductions in severe maternal morbidity among hemorrhage patients. Women in hospitals in their second collaborative had an even greater reduction in morbidity than those approaching the bundle for the first time, reinforcing the concept that quality improvement is a long-term and cumulative process.
Racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes of newborns requiring care in the NICU setting have been reported. The contribution of NICU care to disparities in outcomes is unclear.
To conduct a ...systematic review of the literature documenting racial/ethnic disparities in quality of care for infants in the NICU setting.
Medline/PubMed, Scopus, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health, and Web of Science were searched until March 6, 2018, by using search queries organized around the following key concepts: "neonatal intensive care units," "racial or ethnic disparities," and "quality of care."
English language articles up to March 6, 2018, that were focused on racial and/or ethnic differences in the quality of NICU care were selected.
Two authors independently assessed eligibility, extracted data, and cross-checked results, with disagreements resolved by consensus. Information extracted focused on racial and/or ethnic disparities in quality of care and potential mechanism(s) for disparities.
Initial search yielded 566 records, 470 of which were unique citations. Title and abstract review resulted in 382 records. Appraisal of the full text of the remaining 88 records, along with the addition of 5 citations from expert consult or review of bibliographies, resulted in 41 articles being included.
Quantitative meta-analysis was not possible because of study heterogeneity.
Overall, this systematic review revealed complex racial and/or ethnic disparities in structure, process, and outcome measures, most often disadvantaging infants of color, especially African American infants. There are some exceptions to this pattern and each area merits its own analysis and discussion.
To examine yearly trends of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) diagnosis and treatment in very low birth weight infants.
In this retrospective cohort study of very low birth weight infants (<1500 g) ...between 2008 and 2014 across 134 California hospitals, we evaluated PDA diagnosis and treatment by year of birth. Infants were either inborn or transferred in within 2 days after delivery and had no congenital abnormalities. Intervention levels for treatment administered to achieve ductal closure were categorized as none, pharmacologic (indomethacin or ibuprofen), both pharmacologic intervention and surgical ligation, or ligation only. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess risk factors for PDA diagnosis and treatment.
PDA was diagnosed in 42.8% (12 002/28 025) of infants, with a decrease in incidence from 49.2% of 4205 infants born in 2008 to 38.5% of 4001 infants born in 2014. Pharmacologic and/or surgical treatment was given to 30.5% of patients. Between 2008 and 2014, the annual rate of infants who received pharmacologic intervention (30.5% vs 15.7%) or both pharmacologic intervention and surgical ligation (6.9% vs 2.9%) decreased whereas infants who were not treated (60.5% vs 78.3%) or received primary ligation (2.2% vs 3.0%) increased.
There is an increasing trend toward not treating patients diagnosed with PDA compared with more intensive treatments: pharmacologic intervention or both pharmacologic intervention and surgical ligation. Possible directions for future study include the impact of these trends on hospital-based and long-term outcomes.
To examine the availability of donor human milk (DHM) in a population-based cohort and assess whether the availability of DHM was associated with rates of breast milk feeding at NICU discharge and ...rates of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).
Individual patient clinical data for very low birth weight infants from the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative were linked to hospital-level data on DHM availability from the Mothers' Milk Bank of San José for 2007 to 2013. Trends of DHM availability were examined by level of NICU care. Hospitals that transitioned from not having DHM to having DHM availability during the study period were examined to assess changes in rates of breast milk feeding at NICU discharge and NEC.
The availability of DHM increased from 27 to 55 hospitals during the study period. The availability increased for all levels of care including regional, community, and intermediate NICUs, with the highest increase occurring in regional NICUs. By 2013, 81.3% of premature infants cared for in regional NICUs had access to DHM. Of the 22 hospitals that had a clear transition to having availability of DHM, there was a 10% increase in breast milk feeding at NICU discharge and a concomitant 2.6% decrease in NEC rates.
The availability of DHM has increased over time and has been associated with positive changes including increased breast milk feeding at NICU discharge and decrease in NEC rates.
Background Both maternal mortality rate and severe maternal morbidity rate have risen significantly in the United Sates. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention introduced ...International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, criteria for defining severe maternal morbidity with the use of administrative data sources; however, those criteria have not been validated with the use of chart reviews. Objective The primary aim of the current study was to validate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, criteria for the identification of severe maternal morbidity. This analysis initially required the development of a reproducible set of clinical conditions that were judged to be consistent with severe maternal morbidity to be used as the clinical gold standard for validation. Alternative criteria for severe maternal morbidity were also examined. Study Design The 67,468 deliveries that occurred during a 12-month period from 16 participating California hospitals were screened initially for severe maternal morbidity with the presence of any of 4 criteria: (1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, diagnosis and procedure codes; (2) prolonged postpartum length of stay (>3 standard deviations beyond the mean length of stay for the California population); (3) any maternal intensive care unit admissions (with the use of hospital billing sources); and (4) the administration of any blood product (with the use of transfusion service data). Complete medical records for all screen-positive cases were examined to determine whether they satisfied the criteria for the clinical gold standard (determined by 4 rounds of a modified Delphi technique). Descriptive and statistical analyses that included area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and C-statistic were performed. Results The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, criteria had a reasonably high sensitivity of 0.77 and a positive predictive value of 0.44 with a C-statistic of 0.87. The most important source of false-positive cases were mothers whose only criterion was 1-2 units of blood products. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, criteria screen rate ranged from 0.51-2.45% among hospitals. True positive severe maternal morbidity ranged from 0.05-1.13%. When hospitals were grouped by their neonatal intensive care unit level of care, severe maternal morbidity rates were statistically lower at facilities with lower level neonatal intensive care units ( P < .0001). Conclusion The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, criteria can serve as a reasonable administrative metric for measuring severe maternal morbidity at population levels. Caution should be used with the use of these criteria for individual hospitals, because case-mix effects appear to be strong.
Differences in NICU quality of care provided to very low birth weight (<1500 g) infants may contribute to the persistence of racial and/or ethnic disparity. An examination of such disparities in a ...population-based sample across multiple dimensions of care and outcomes is lacking.
Prospective observational analysis of 18 616 very low birth weight infants in 134 California NICUs between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2014. We assessed quality of care via the Baby-MONITOR, a composite indicator consisting of 9 process and outcome measures of quality. For each NICU, we calculated a risk-adjusted composite and individual component quality score for each race and/or ethnicity. We standardized each score to the overall population to compare quality of care between and within NICUs.
We found clinically and statistically significant racial and/or ethnic variation in quality of care between NICUs as well as within NICUs. Composite quality scores ranged by 5.26 standard units (range: -2.30 to 2.96). Adjustment of Baby-MONITOR scores by race and/or ethnicity had only minimal effect on comparative assessments of NICU performance. Among subcomponents of the Baby-MONITOR, non-Hispanic white infants scored higher on measures of process compared with African Americans and Hispanics. Compared with whites, African Americans scored higher on measures of outcome; Hispanics scored lower on 7 of the 9 Baby-MONITOR subcomponents.
Significant racial and/or ethnic variation in quality of care exists between and within NICUs. Providing feedback of disparity scores to NICUs could serve as an important starting point for promoting improvement and reducing disparities.
IMPORTANCE: Racial and ethnic minorities receive lower-quality health care than white non-Hispanic individuals in the United States. Where minority infants receive care and the role that may play in ...the quality of care received is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To determine the extent of segregation and inequality of care of very low-birth-weight and very preterm infants across neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in the United States. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cohort study of 743 NICUs in the Vermont Oxford Network included 117 982 black, Hispanic, Asian, and white infants born at 401 g to 1500 g or 22 to 29 weeks’ gestation from January 2014 to December 2016. Analysis began January 2018. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The NICU segregation index and NICU inequality index were calculated at the hospital level as the Gini coefficients associated with the Lorenz curves for black, Hispanic, and Asian infants compared with white infants, with NICUs ranked by proportion of white infants for the NICU segregation index and by composite Baby-MONITOR (Measure of Neonatal Intensive Care Outcomes Research) score for the NICU inequality index. RESULTS: Infants (36 359 black 31%, 21 808 Hispanic 18%, 5920 Asian 5%, and 53 895 white 46%) were segregated among the 743 NICUs by race and ethnicity (NICU segregation index: black: 0.50 95% CI, 0.46-0.53, Hispanic: 0.58 95% CI, 0.54-0.61, and Asian: 0.45 95% CI, 0.40-0.50). Compared with white infants, black infants were concentrated at NICUs with lower-quality scores, and Hispanic and Asian infants were concentrated at NICUs with higher-quality scores (NICU inequality index: black: 0.07 95% CI, 0.02-0.13, Hispanic: −0.10 95% CI, −0.17 to −0.04, and Asian: −0.26 95% CI, −0.32 to −0.19). There was marked variation among the census regions in weighted mean NICU quality scores (range: −0.69 to 0.85). Region of residence explained the observed inequality for Hispanic infants but not for black or Asian infants. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Black, Hispanic, and Asian infants were segregated across NICUs, reflecting the racial segregation of minority populations in the United States. There were large differences between geographic regions in NICU quality. After accounting for these differences, compared with white infants, Asian infants received care at higher-quality NICUs and black infants, at lower-quality NICUs. Explaining these patterns will require understanding the effects of sociodemographic factors and public policies on hospital quality, access, and choice for minority women and their infants.
Administrative databases may allow true population-based studies and quality improvement endeavors, but the accuracy of billing codes for capturing key risk factors and outcomes needs to be assessed. ...We sought to describe the performance of a statewide administrative database and the clinical database from the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative (CPQCC).
This population-based retrospective cohort study linked key perinatal risk factors and outcomes from the 133-unit CPQCC database to relevant billing codes from administrative maternal and newborn inpatient discharge records, for 50 631 infants born from 2006 to 2012. Using the CPQCC record as the gold standard, we calculated the positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and Matthews correlation coefficient for each item, then evaluated comparative performance across units.
The Matthews correlation coefficient was highest (>0.7; strong positive correlation) for multiple delivery, Cesarean delivery, very low birth weight, maternal hypertension, maternal diabetes, patent ductus arteriosus, in-hospital death, patent ductus arteriosus and retinopathy of prematurity surgeries, extracorporeal life support, and intraventricular hemorrhage. Maternal chorioamnionitis, fetal distress, retinopathy of prematurity staging, chronic lung disease, and pneumothorax were the least reliably coded. Maternal factors and delivery details were more reliably coded in the maternal inpatient record than the newborn inpatient record.
Several important perinatal risk factors and outcomes are highly congruent between these administrative and clinical databases. Several subjective risk factors and outcomes are appropriate targets for data improvement initiatives. The ability for timely extraction of administrative inpatient data will be key to their usefulness in quality metrics.
Eliminating persistent racial/ethnic disparities in maternal mortality and morbidity is a public health priority. National strategies to improve maternal outcomes are increasingly focused on quality ...improvement collaboratives. However, the effectiveness of quality collaboratives for reducing racial disparities in maternity care is understudied.
To evaluate the impact of a hemorrhage quality-improvement collaborative on racial disparities in severe maternal morbidity from hemorrhage.
We conducted a cross-sectional study from 2011 to 2016 among 99 hospitals that participated in a hemorrhage quality improvement collaborative in California. The focus of the quality collaborative was to implement the national maternal hemorrhage safety bundle consisting of 17 evidence-based recommendations for practice and care processes known to improve outcomes. This analysis included 54,311 women from the baseline period (January 2011 through December 2014) and 19,165 women from the postintervention period (October 2015 through December 2016) with a diagnosis of obstetric hemorrhage during delivery hospitalization. We examined whether racial/ethnic-specific severe maternal morbidity rates in these women with obstetric hemorrhage were reduced from the baseline to the postintervention period. In addition, we conducted Poisson Generalized Estimating Equation models to estimate relative risks and 95% confidence intervals for severe maternal morbidity comparing each racial/ethnic group with white.
During the baseline period, the rate of severe maternal morbidity among women with hemorrhage was 22.1% (12,002/54,311) with the greatest rate observed among black women (28.6%, 973/3404), and the lowest among white women (19.8%, 3124/15,775). The overall rate fell to 18.5% (3553/19,165) in the postintervention period. Both black and white mothers benefited from the intervention, but the benefit among black women exceeded that of white women (9.0% vs 2.1% absolute rate reduction). The baseline risk of severe maternal morbidity was 1.34 times greater among black mothers compared with white mothers (relative risk, 1.34; 95% confidence interval, 1.27–1.42), and it was reduced to 1.22 (1.05–1.40) in the postintervention period. Sociodemographic and clinical factors explained a part of the black–white differences. After controlling for these factors, the black–white relative risk was 1.22 (95% confidence interval, 1.15–1.30) at baseline and narrowed to 1.07 (1.92–1.24) in the postintervention period. Results were similar when excluding severe maternal morbidity cases with transfusion alone. After accounting for maternal risk factors, the black–white relative risk for severe maternal morbidity excluding transfusion alone was reduced from a baseline of 1.33 (95% confidence interval, 1.16–1.52) to 0.99 (0.76–1.29) in the postintervention period. The most important clinical risk factor for disparate black rates for both severe maternal morbidity and severe maternal morbidity excluding transfusion alone was cesarean delivery, potentially providing another opportunity for quality improvement.
A large-scale quality improvement collaborative reduced rates of severe maternal morbidity due to hemorrhage in all races and reduced the performance gap between black and white women. Improving access to highly effective treatments has the potential to decrease disparities for care-sensitive acute hospital-focused morbidities.
Objective Because limited long-term outcome data exist for infants born at 32 to 36 weeks gestation, we compared school outcomes between 32- to 33-week moderate preterm (MP), 34-36 week late preterm ...(LP) and full-term (FT) infants. Study design A total of 970 preterm infants and 13 671 FT control subjects were identified from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort. Test scores, teacher evaluations, and special education enrollment from kindergarten (K) to grade 5 were compared. Results LP infants had lower reading scores than FT infants in K to first grade ( P < .05). Adjusted risk for poor reading and math scores remained elevated in first grade ( P < .05). Teacher evaluations of math skills from K to first grade and reading skills from K to fifth grade were worse for LP infants ( P < .05). Adjusted odds for below average skills remained higher for math in K and for reading at all grades ( P < .05). Special education participation was higher for LP infants at early grades (odds ratio, 1.4-2.1). MP infants had lower test and teacher evaluation scores than FT infants and twice the risk for special education at all grade levels. Conclusions Persistent teacher concerns through grade 5 and greater special education needs among MP and LP infants suggest a need to start follow-up, anticipatory guidance, and interventions for infants born at 32 to 36 weeks gestation.
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