Ohio's Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review ERASE MM Project - Ohio’s Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review (PAMR), the state’s maternal mortality review committee (MMRC), comprehensively reviews all pregnancy-associated deaths to intimately understanding leading causing and contributors of death, and to develop recommendations for preventing future deaths by: • Identifying all pregnancy-associated deaths that occurred to Ohio residents; • Requesting and obtaining records from any facilities, providers, or offices the decedent received care or services from prior to their death; • Reviewing every maternal death with the PAMR Committee; and • Analyzing data collected during the PAMR Committee reviews for dissemination to inform and guide the implementation of various public health programs. PAMR was established in 2010 and was codified into Ohio Revised Code in 2019. The collection of this data serves as the foundation to implement data-driven recommendations to improve quality of care and address social determinants of health to reduce health inequities among Ohio’s mothers. Receipt of CDC-RFA-DP-24-0053 will support the ongoing efforts of Ohio’s PAMR surveillance efforts by maintaining PAMR staff including 4 FTE nurse abstractors, 1 FTE PAMR Coordinator and 1 FTE Health Services Policy Analyst. Existing staff will continue to strengthen the identification, abstraction and data entry of maternal death cases into MMRIA. As well as the capacity to facilitate a multidisciplinary PAMR committee made up of members from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, including both clinical and non-clinical settings. This grant award will also enable the Ohio MMRC to strategically identify process improvements to: • Increase timeliness, accuracy, and standardization of information available about pregnancy-related deaths. • Increase engagement and cooperation between MMRCs, partners, and communities to communicate information from data on pregnancy-related deaths. • Increase availability of MMRC recommendations among communities, clinicians, public health practitioners, and decision makers. • Increase the adoption of clinical and non-clinical policies and programs that reflect the highest standards of care; and also reach or consider the needs of Black pregnant women, pregnant women with mental health conditions and women during the postpartum period. In response to PAMR data, this project will support the Disparities in Maternal Health Community Grant to improve maternal health outcomes by funding equity-driven interventions focused on addressing maternal health disparities at the community level. All activities supported by CDC-RFA-DP-24-0053 are part of statewide effort to improve maternal health outcomes and reduce disparities in outcomes.
