IHI Launches Maternal Care Improvement Project

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) has begun a three-year project that aims to improve maternal outcomes for women and babies in the U.S. Supported by a grant from Merck for Mothers, the project’s goals are to spread the use of evidence-based care practices to reduce complications such as hemorrhaging, hypertension, and blood clots. It also plans to implement strategies to reduce disparities in maternal outcomes, and partner with women, their caregivers, healthcare providers, and community initiatives to better learn and address factors to improve health outcomes for mothers and newborns.

“IHI has proven experience in helping healthcare providers adopt and scale up best practices that save lives across whole systems, regions, and countries,” said Trissa Torres, MD, MSPH, FACPM, chief operations and North American programs officer at IHI, in a release. “We believe that by forging partnerships with others working on these problems and combining existing expertise with IHI’s improvement methodology, we can significantly improve care delivery outcomes for new and expectant mothers.”

Annually, an estimated 750 women die in the U.S. as a result of complications of childbirth, with more than 50,000 suffering serious complications, according to the IHI. African-American women have maternal mortality rates estimated to be three to four times higher than those of white women.

Merck for Mothers is a 10-year, $500 million initiative to help improve maternal mortality rates. The program began in 2011 and has expanded to more than 30 countries.