Thursday, April 3, 2025
4/3/2025
Strengthening Maryland Maternal Mortality Surveillance - Pregnant and birthing people are pillars in a family’s life, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and culturally. The death of a parent, especially during a pregnancy or in the first year postpartum, is devastating and has impacts for their family and their communities. The Maryland Maternal Mortality Review Program (the Program) was established in statute in 2000. The Maryland Annotated Code Health-General Article §13-1203 - 1207, establishes the Program in the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) and describes its scope. The purpose of the Program is to: 1) Identify maternal death cases; 2) Review medical records and other relevant data; 3) Determine preventability of death; 4) Develop recommendations for the prevention of maternal deaths; and 5) Disseminate findings and recommendations to policymakers, physicians and other health care providers, health care facilities, and the general public. The strengths of Maryland’s Maternal Mortality Review Program (the Program), which reviews all pregnancy-associated (PA) deaths, lie in its comprehensive review, connections with local and statewide programs, and systems-level emphasis. This application addresses MDH’s capacity to enhance our maternal mortality surveillance activities, including improving the completeness and timeliness of data available for case review. Key strategies include maintaining a membership of the MMRT that represents both clinical, non-clinical, and community-focused expertise; use of the Maternal Mortality Review Information Application (MMRIA) for maternal death case data and MMRT decisions; continuously evaluating and modifying review processes to adhere to timelines for case identification, abstraction and review with a goal of finalizing all death reviews within two years from the date the death; improving the completeness of case information, including family interviews, Medicaid claims and pharmacy data, birth and fetal death certificate data, social records (i.e. WIC, home visiting), and electronic record access; enhancing dissemination of maternal mortality review findings to inform practice and policy changes; and use of data from the MMR process for action to prevent future deaths and eliminate disparities.
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).