RWJBH Institute for Prevention and Recovery - Reducing Maternal Deaths Due To Substance Use Disorder - The RWJBarnabas Health (RWJBH) Institute for Prevention and Recovery (IFPR) will partner with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital (BMSCH), Children’s Specialized Hospital (CSH), selected RWJBH and Eric B. Chandler Health Center Obstetrician-Gynecologists (OB-GYN) providers, the RWJBH Medical Group, The Center for Great Expectations, and Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) to implement OASH FY 2022 - Reducing Maternal Deaths Due to Substance Use Disorder (SUD) to provide clinical and wraparound services to strengthen perinatal and postnatal support structures for patients with SUD in New Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey. This area has disparities in socioeconomic status, health status, and access to services. New Brunswick has a large Hispanic/Latino population. Almost half (46.8%) of all residents identify as Hispanic/Latino, while about a quarter (26.7%) are non-Hispanic white, 15.3% are non-Hispanic Black, and a tenth (9.7%) are non-Hispanic Asian. Less than 2% are of other races or multiracial. New Jersey has struggled with the opioid overdose crisis in the past decade, with a 133.8% increase in drug overdose deaths from 2013 to 2021. Over a three year period, 58% of all maternal deaths in New Jersey were associated were from SUD; to qualify, individuals died within one year of pregnancy. The Peer Recovery Program (PRP) at RWJUH, which provides recovery support services to patients with SUD, had contact with only 22 known pregnant women in 202, demonstrating a low number of perinatal patients served. Maternal health disparities are also prevalent; the percentage of preterm births in 2019 was 13.8% and 9.9% for non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic mothers, respectively, compared to 8.3% for non-Hispanic white mothers. In 2019, 56.8% of mothers who gave birth at RWJUH were Hispanic (30.6%), non-Hispanic Asian (15.5%), or non-Hispanic Black (9.1%). The goals of the Reducing Mat
ernal Deaths Due to SUD project are to: 1) Increase the capacity of RWJUH Labor and Delivery (L&D) and emergency department (ED) staff, BMSCH, CSH, selected RWJBH and Eric B. Chandler Health Center OB-GYN providers, and community-based organizations in New Brunswick to reduce overdose events and strengthen support structures for perinatal and postpartum patients with SUD, 2) Deliver technologically innovative education and outreach through a mobile health application to provide access to services and supports to perinatal and postpartum patients with SUD, and 3) Increase the number of perinatal and postpartum patients with SUD receiving treatment including MOUD in combination with comprehensive clinical and community-based services. The project will measure progress towards goals and objectives by utilizing RWJBH’s electronic health record, BHealthy Mom app, and Qualtrics survey tools to conduct pre-and post-tests and patient surveys.
