A Central Brooklyn hospital featured in ProPublica and NPR’s “Lost Mothers” series for its high hemorrhage rate will serve as a pilot for quality reforms.
In response to alarming racial disparities, New York City announced a
new initiative last week to reduce maternal deaths and complications
among women of color. Under the new plan,
the city will improve the data collection on maternal deaths and
complications, fund implicit bias training for medical staff at private
and public hospitals, and launch a public awareness campaign.
Over the next three years, the city will spend $12.8 million on the
initiative, with the goal of eliminating the black-white racial
disparity in deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth and cutting the
number of complications in half within five years.
“We recognize these are ambitious goals, but they are not
unrealistic,” said Dr. Herminia Palacio, New York City’s deputy mayor
for health and human services. “It’s an explicit recognition of the
urgency of this issue and puts the goal posts in front of us.”
The city’s health department is targeting nearly two dozen public and
private hospitals over four years, focusing on neighborhoods with the
highest complication rates, including the South Bronx, North and Central
Brooklyn, and East and Central Harlem. Hospital officials will study
data from cases that led to bad outcomes, and staff will participate in
drills aimed at helping them recognize and treat those complications.
Health department officials approached SUNY Downstate Medical Center
in May to serve as a pilot site for many of the new measures.
Click here for the full article.
Source: ProPublica
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