Hospital Quality and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity

描述(申请人提供)：黑人女性因怀孕而死亡的可能性是白人女性的3到4倍。与其他国家相比，美国的孕产妇死亡率--每10万名活产中的孕产妇死亡人数--很高。在纽约市，产妇死亡率40年来一直高于全国平均水平，目前在美国名列前茅。纽约市的种族/民族差异更令人担忧，黑人女性死于与怀孕有关的原因的可能性是白人女性的7倍。妊娠的潜在致命并发症包括出血、妊娠高血压疾病和心肌病，黑人妇女所有这些疾病的死亡率都更高。在美国，与怀孕有关的死亡只是冰山一角；每有100名产妇死亡，就会有100名妇女经历严重的产妇发病率--可能危及生命的诊断或接受挽救生命的手术。在美国，每年约有52,000名妇女受到严重的孕产妇发病率的影响。与产妇死亡率方面的种族/民族差异类似，黑人妇女比白人妇女更容易患上严重的产妇发病率。由于相当大比例的孕产妇死亡率和发病率被认为是可以预防的，医院提供的保健质量可能是改善结局的一个主要杠杆。我们提出了一项混合方法研究，以调查改善医院质量在多大程度上可以减少严重孕产妇发病率的种族/民族差异。本研究的目标是：1)根据风险调整后的严重孕产妇发病率对纽约市的医院进行排名，并检查这些医院中白人、黑人和拉丁裔分娩的分布差异；2)使用混合方法来探索与严重孕产妇发病率高和低相关的护理流程、单元特征、组织因素和患者因素；3)探讨患者对获得高质量护理的障碍的观点，包括他们对接生医院的决策和对风险的感知；以及4)在有能力促进采用最佳实践和解决患者关切的关键社区和医院利益攸关方中传播研究结果。在这个项目的最后阶段，我们将邀请产科领导人、纽约市和州卫生部官员、联合委员会、美国妇产科医生学会、医院质量领导人、社区领导人和母亲们讨论我们的结果。我们将探索干预措施，以改善对纽约市妇女的护理，缩小种族/民族孕产妇发病率差距，并制定以患者为中心的战略，以减少获得高质量医疗服务的障碍。这项研究旨在产生与提供高质量住院产妇护理高度相关的组织因素和护理流程的知识；这些信息将专门针对服务于少数族裔人口的单位而定制，并适用于美国其他医院之间存在种族/民族差异的地区。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Black women are 3 to 4 times more likely to suffer a pregnancy-related death than are white women. The maternal mortality ratio-the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births-in the U.S. is high compared to other countries. In New York City the maternal mortality ratio has been above the national average for 40 years and currently ranks among the highest in the US. Racial/ethnic disparities in New York City are more alarming as black women are 7 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. Potentially fatal complications of pregnancy include hemorrhage, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and cardiomyopathy and black women suffer greater mortality from all of them. Deaths associated with pregnancy in the United States are the "tip of the iceberg"; for every maternal death, 100 women experience severe maternal morbidity-potentially life-threatening diagnosis or receipt of a life-saving procedure. Severe maternal morbidity affects approximately 52,000 women annually in the US. Similar to racial/ethnic disparities in maternal mortality, black women are much more likely to suffer from severe maternal morbidity than white women. Since a significant proportion of maternal mortality and morbidity is considered preventable, quality of health care delivered in hospitals may represent a major lever for improving outcomes. We propose a mixed methods study to investigate the extent to which improving hospital quality could reduce racial/ethnic disparities in severe maternal morbidity. The objectives of this study are to: 1) Rank New York City hospitals by risk-adjusted severe maternal morbidity and examine disparities in the distribution of white, black, and Latino deliveries among these hospitals; 2) Use mixed methods to explore processes of care, unit characteristics, organizational factors, and patient factors associated with high and low rates of severe maternal morbidity hospitals; 3) Explore patients' perspectives on barriers to receipt of high quality care including their decision- making regarding delivery hospital, and perception of risk; and 4) Disseminate findings among key community and hospital stakeholders who have the power to promote uptake of the best practices and address the patient concerns. In the final phase of this project, we will bring leaders of obstetrics, NYC and State Department of Health officials, The Joint Commission, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, hospital quality leaders, community leaders, and mothers to discuss our results. We will explore interventions to improve care for women in NYC and narrow racial/ethnic maternal morbidity disparities and develop patient- centered strategies to reduce barriers to receipt of high quality care. This study aims to produce knowledge about organizational factors and processes of care that are of high relevance for the provision of quality inpatient maternity care; this information will be specifically tailored to units serving minority populations and applicable to other areas i the U.S. where racial/ethnic disparities exist between hospitals.