Application Guide

Thank you for your interest in participating in the Maternal HealthCARE quality improvement collaborative aimed at advancing equity and improving maternal health outcomes.

We are no longer accepting applications at this time. Should you have any questions, contact maternalhealthcare@marchofdimes.org.

 

Project Goal

An intensive pilot will use a community- and patient-centered intervention to reduce racial inequities and the disparity gap in outcomes for Black birthing people, with the ultimate goal of improving Black maternal health outcomes during the birth hospitalization.

Key Activities

Participating hospitals will need to develop leadership buy-in and capacity to drive and sustain system improvements in key practices related to implementing structures and processes.

Participating hospitals will be asked to collect and submit data throughout the initiative on their progress toward implementing these key drivers:

  1. Formation of an anti-racism work group that develops, implements, and reviews anti-racism structures and processes related to the birthing person.

  2. Participation in anti-racism and implicit bias education for all labor and delivery and postpartum staff and providers.

  3. Develop and implement a process to collect accurate patient reported race and ethnicity data and review maternal health quality data stratified by race and ethnicity to identify disparities and opportunities for improvement.

  4. Conduct multidisciplinary reviews and identify how individual and systemic racism may have impacted severe maternal morbidity, mortality, and other clinically important metrics.

  5. Implement TeamBirth, developed by Ariadne Labs, to improve team communication and the birth experience.

  6. Implement a patient survey to obtain feedback from patients regarding their birth experience and a process to review and share results with providers, nurses, and staff.

  7. Formation of a Community Accountability Panel (CAP) made up of patients, support people and community members (External to the hospital). Hospitals will receive and review CAP reports. Read more about the CAPs

Project Requirements

 Participating hospitals will be expected to:

  • Sign all commitment forms and data use agreements

  • Assemble a strong QI team for this project, including an executive sponsor, physician and nurse champion, and QI and/or data leads who will facilitate progress toward initiative goals

  • Facilitate implementation of the key activities

  • Collect and submit data monthly and quarterly. Click to download information on the project measures.

  • Facilitate staff completion of a culture survey and promote patient responses to a patient feedback survey

  • Closely track initiative progress and provide resources to the team to facilitate project efforts

  • Convene regular team meetings during implementation to plan and review tests of change cycles

  • Commit champions to attend regular (monthly) collaborative group coaching calls

  • Participate in trainings provided by March of Dimes on TeamBirth, developed by Ariadne Labs

  • Participate in implicit bias in maternity care education that meets approved criteria, during the project or within the last two years

  • Receive and review regular email communication related to the project, and disseminate information through the department, if applicable

Project Timeline (Wave #2)

Pre-Work Phase

Pre-work is the period between when your hospital is accepted to join the project and when you launch the project in your hospital.

During this period, we will ask that your team:

  • Complete all formal contracts and data use agreements with the March of Dimes

  • Complete a readiness survey and a phone call with March of Dimes quality improvement staff so that we can create a gap analysis survey for your hospital’s project

  • Attend Maternal HealthCARE project coaching calls and begin improvement of your organization’s data collection and mapping, and create a process to collect accurate patient-reported race and ethnicity data

  • Conduct pre-work in preparation for launching TeamBirth, developed by Ariadne Labs, including scheduling training

  • Plan staff participation in implicit bias in maternity care training and education

  • Complete Maternal HealthCARE data surveys to begin planning improvements and tracking progress

  • Schedule and convene regular meetings of your team for this initiative and begin to plan your on-site progress launch

Implementation Action Phase

During this phase hospitals will work towards major improvement. We ask that your team:

  • Regularly convene meetings of your project leadership team to plan your process and structural changes, review initiative progress, etc.

  • Attend a training on TeamBirth and begin implementing TeamBirth

  • Work on anti-racism workgroup goals, multidisciplinary case reviews, improvement of patient-reported race/ethnicity data, and patient feedback surveys

  • Implement TeamBirth

  • Attend Maternal HealthCARE project collaborative calls to receive technical assistance on your project’s implementation

  • Collect and submit project monthly and quarterly project data to track progress

Evaluation Phase

At the end of the project, teams will submit QI data during a control period, and be asked to complete a post-implementation survey.

Your Project Leadership Team Commitments

In order to participate in this initiative, hospitals will be required to obtain the commitment of an hospital executive sponsor, a physician champion, a nurse champion, and a quality improvement or data lead. We also encourage involvement of a nurse-midwife champion and a chief diversity officer, if applicable. Please download the Maternal HealthCARE QI Project: Considerations document which provides a series of questions to consider before, during, and after the project.

We ask that you enter the name, title, and contact information for each champion on your team. One person may take on more than one of these roles, but a minimum of 3 fully committed team members are required.

Project Lead: The Project Lead is the person on your team making the commitment for hospital participation and will be the:

  • Main change agent for your project, with ultimate project management and oversight (convene regular meetings of hospital QI team and champions, track initiative progress, attend collaborative meetings, ensure project objectives and timelines are met)

  • Main contact/point person for the March of Dimes for the project

Executive Sponsor: Hospital administrator with appropriate organizational authority to commit the hospital to the project requirements. Must promote the goals of the collaborative and link to hospital strategic initiatives, provide resources to their team including time to devote to the effort and facilitation of active senior leadership involvement. Sponsor will receive project data on team progress and will closely track initiative progress to assure adequate support during the project duration.

Physician, Nurse, and [Optional] Nurse Midwife Champions: Clinical champions, who will lead the project’s quality improvement effort, including:

  • Convening and attending regular internal team meetings and education events

  • Dissemination of data and feedback provided by March of Dimes

  • Attending collaborative meetings and trainings

  • Work with peers to gain support for improvements

  • Developing a strategy for accountability among partners to assure progress toward project goals

  • Perform tests of change that lead to process improvements within the organization

Quality Improvement and/or Data Analyst: This leader will be responsible for collecting, submitting, and receiving quality improvement data reports on behalf of the project team, and should commit to attending all project meetings to track initiative progress and plan change, as well as disseminating the data and feedback provided by the March of Dimes.

[Optional] Chief Diversity Officer: We recommend that your hospital’s Equity officer be involved in this project, if the role exists at your organization.

Team members added to this form will receive newsletter and email/phone communication from the March of Dimes project team. If you’d like to add additional champions to our communication list, please e-mail us at maternalhealthCARE@marchofdimes.org.

 Capacity for OB Quality improvement Project Implementation

Information collected on the following topics are meant to measure your institution’s fit for this pilot project:

  • Current role dedicated to OB quality improvement

  • Current involvement in any OB quality improvement projects

  • Topics of any OB quality improvement projects within the past 5 years

  • Does your hospital currently collect patient race information for the Electronic Medical Record?

  • How does your hospital currently collect patient race information for the Electronic Medical Record?

Ready to make a difference for your patients and community?

The linked online application will assess your organization’s commitment and capacity for this collaborative. Applications will be reviewed for readiness on a rolling basis and if accepted, your team will receive communication with a detailed project implementation guide. Please contact us at maternalhealthCARE@marchofdimes.org with any questions.