Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative’s (FPQC) purpose is that all Florida’s mothers, infants, and families will have the best health outcomes possible through receiving respectful, equitable, high quality, evidence‐based perinatal care. Being equity‐centered is a core value. Working with state partners, hospitals, community organizations, and patient advocates, FPQC identifies leading maternal and infant health issues that can be addressed effectively through implementing evidence‐based strategies at a hospital level using rapid data quality improvement cycles. We expect a large increase in the number of participating hospitals with a new state law requiring all maternity hospitals to participate annually in two FPQC initiatives. Our Component A proposal objective is to engage statewide participation in effective quality improvement (QI) initiatives to improve perinatal healthcare and outcomes and reduce the disparities among populations disproportionately impacted by adverse outcomes. Activities to accomplish this objective expand and strengthen FPQC’s QI capacity through: 1) providing nurse and physician coaches in each initiative to lead group coaching calls for smaller hospital groups and provide individual hospital mentoring; 2) expanding FPQC’s QI program and data staffing to adequately support additional hospitals; 3) providing QI training to coaches and FPQC staff to support hospitals in using QI practices; 4) engaging family and community advisors to meet the needs for large QI initiatives to foster stronger connections to hospitals, families, and communities; 5) developing innovative efforts to identify, engage, and support facilities serving communities disproportionately impacted by adverse perinatal outcomes; and 6) enhancing data systems to improve identification and documentation of disparities. Our Year 1 maternal health QI initiatives will be a) Postpartum Access & Continuity of Care (PACC) and b) Social Determinants of H
ealth (SDOH). As a result of the agreement’s activities, the FPQC expects to achieve the following agreement outcomes during the five‐year project period: 1) Increase participation in FPQC QI initiatives by maternity hospitals and licensed NICUs including enrollment, data submission, and change package implementation, 2) Increase initiative participation by identified hospitals and licensed NICUs that serve disproportionately impacted populations including enrollment, data submission, and change package implementation, 3) Assure that all FPQC QI initiatives are equity‐centered and focus on reducing disparities and promote respectful care, and 4) Reduce healthcare practice disparities in all FPQC QI initiatives.