PQCs in the News: OpEd from NNPQC Executive Committee Member Veronica Gillispie-Bell

Arkansas Perinatal Quality Collaborative [Dawn Brown, ARPQC program director] says it takes a team effort to improve maternal outcomes. “Now, we’re kind of all moving in the same direction and getting everybody kind of under the same tent. Doing that work together, I think, is what’s going to be important for Arkansas,” Brown said. Read…

Washington State Perinatal Collaborative, Montana Alliance for Innovation of Maternal Health The first perinatal quality collaborative took root in California in 1997, [the CDC’s Jacqueline Wallace] noted, and there is now one in each state. “PQCs address gaps and reduce variation in care,” Wallace said. “It’s really critical because variation in care is a big…

Nebraska Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative [Ann Anderson Berry] said she and many of her colleagues don’t necessarily trust the accuracy of self-reported data because race and ethnicity can also be assumed by medical providers, who then record it based on their assumptions into a patient’s health record. Nebraska also has an asterisk next to its…

Oregon Perinatal Collaborative The new state funding will allow OPC to not only maintain current programs, but also implement new health improvement initiatives in Oregon, including expanding efforts to treat and prevent substance use disorder during pregnancy and postpartum, and continuing the work of the Oregon Maternal Data Center, started in 2015, which reports on births in Oregon…