Monday, January 20, 2025
1/20/2025
The health of a State is often expressed by their maternal & infant mortality, Virginia currently ranks 23rd with a rate of 20 per 100,000 deaths and 23rd with a rate of 5.57 per 1,000 live births respectively. The Virginia Neonatal Perinatal Collaborative (VNPC) mission is that “we exist to ensure that every mother has the best perinatal care and every infant cared for in Virginia has the best possible start to life, we believe that working together now will create a stronger, healthier Virginia in the future”. Since the establishment of the Virginia Neonatal Perinatal Collaborative (VNPC) in 2017, the statewide collaborative quickly attracted interest from hospital systems, health care professionals, professional organizations, state agencies, and community stakeholders and partners that have a mission to improve outcomes for mothers and babies across the Commonwealth. In June of 2019, Governor Northam announced a goal to get rid of the racial disparity in the maternal mortality rate in Virginia by 2025. The current disparity shows that Black women are two times more likely to die related to pregnancy and postpartum related complications in the State of Virginia. Several additional opportunities are noted in the most recent Virginia Maternal Mortality Review team (MMRT) report, published in 2019, for improvement of the coordination of care and management of chronic diseases in pregnant and post-partum women all found to directly impact maternal mortality and morbidity. Some of the recommendations include (1) increasing provider and specialist training in the management of specific chronic conditions in pregnant and post-partum women, (2) improving the accessibility of women’s health specialists in emergency departments, (3) all provider who see women of child-bearing age are trained in mental health, substance abuse, and domestic violence screening, and (4) development of a communication plan for providers, communities and patient related to awareness of maternal mortality & morbidity. Additionally, implementing policies that facilitate the coordination of care and patient navigation, inclusive of the identification of barriers to care and the provision of referrals to community resources to address the identified barriers, is important. The CDC has recognized that while data is essential, it must be used to drive action and the VNPC is the action arm of the MMRT. In the development of the fourth trimester project, the VNPC operationalized the recommendations from the MMRT, focusing on (1) reproductive health, (2) perinatal mental health, (3) maternal health, (4) human milk feeding, and (5) prevention and education across the continuum of care of pregnancy through transition from post-partum care back to well women care. The VNPC is applying for Component A of the State PQC grant, to move our pilot of the “fourth trimester project”, which has 15 hospitals currently participating to all 51 birth hospitals, who implement all topics and phases of the project, through monthly technical assistance calls, monthly data submission. The VNPC will implement the pilot “eliminate bias in the dyad care project” during year two, focusing on improving substance use in the dyad. The VNPC will hold bimonthly QI calls with all hospitals learning from each other and working towards a common goal of eliminating health disparities, through the use of the Maternal Health Dashboard, tailoring their work to areas of opportunity within their communities. In collaboration with our many partners, including Virginia Department of Health (and Title V), Virginia Department of Medical Assistance and Services (DMAS) and Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA), our strong partnerships and commitment to improve maternal and infant health outcomes across the Commonwealth will make this grant a success.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).