University of Mississippi Medical Center: The Center for Optimizing Maternal Outcomes - Mississippi has the unfortunate distinction in leading the nation in maternal and infant mortality. Numerous factors drive these distressingly high rates in our state, including poverty, high rates of chronic disease, access to care, and health system integration issues. Low rates of prenatal care engagement and underutilization of evidence-based practices demonstrate clear opportunities to improve the health outcomes of mothers in Mississippi. Changes in the healthcare landscape have exacerbated geographic barriers in accessing obstetric care, with a heavy burden of high-risk care and a paucity of specialty trained physician. Mississippi has only three locations with maternal-fetal medicine expertise. COMO seeks to advance maternal health using a data driven, local impact approach that advances early access to prenatal care and optimization of evidence-based practices that are known to improve outcomes for mothers and babies. Given the intrinsic challenges within our rural communities, this project will engage in a community centric model that focuses on underserved and rural communities. Work Plan Summary We propose to address Mississippi’s maternal morbidity crisis through the adoption of a data driven, community focused, care optimization program. The three essential components will include 1) locally actionable data, 2) data dissemination and system enhancement, and 3) partner engagement to maximize the implementation of evidence-based interventions. The focus area of this project will include counties in southern Mississippi to include Adams, Amite, Claiborne, Copiah, Covington, Forrest, Franklin, George, Greene, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Lamar, Lawrence, Lincoln, Marion, Pearl River, Perry, Pike, Simpson, Smith, Stone, Walthall, Wayne, and Wilkinson Counties.
