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Birth Equity – BE






3x

Non-Hispanic Black women are about 3 times
more likely than non-Hispanic white women to
die during or within a year of pregnancy from a
related complication.

2-3x

Compared to non-Hispanic white women, all
other racial and ethnic groups have higher rates of
severe complications during pregnancy and in the
year postpartum.

BE Monthly Webinar: April 15th

Register for the next Birth Equity Monthly Webinar on Monday, April 15th at 12pm CT

Topic: Expanding Patient Access to Home Visiting Programs

Addressing maternal disparities and promoting Birth Equity


In 2021, the Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative (ILPQC) will launch the statewide obstetric quality improvement initiative, Birth Equity (BE). This is an important statewide quality improvement initiative selected by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Statewide Quality Council (SQC) and Perinatal Advisory Committee to engage hospital teams to implement strategies to address maternal health disparities and promote birth equity. Birth equity is the assurance of the conditions of optimal births for all people with a willingness to address racial and social inequities in a sustained effort.

ILPQC will work alongside hospital teams to achieve
this goal through: addressing social determinants of health during prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care; utilizing race/ethnicity medical record and quality data; engaging patients, support partners, and communities with a focus on patient-centered care; and engaging and educating providers, nurses, and staff to improve birth equity.

Collaborative Aim: By December 2023, 75% of IL hospitals will have actively participated in the Birth Equity Initiative to address maternal disparities and promote birth equity between June 2021 and December 2023. 

 

Key Opportunities:


  • 1.

    Implementation of universal social determinants of health screening prenatally and during delivery admission with linkage to appropriate resources and services

  • 2.

    Review maternal health quality data stratified by race, ethnicity and Medicaid status to identify disparities and address opportunities for improvement

  • 3.

    Take steps to engage patients and/or community members to provide input on QI efforts

  • 4.

    Implement a strategy for sharing expected respectful care practices during delivery admission; and survey patients before discharge on their care experience (using the PREM tool) to provide feedback

  • 5.

    Standardize system to provide patient education prior to hospital discharge on postpartum safety including urgent maternal warning signs and tools to improve communication with providers

  • 6.

    Implement education for providers and staff on the importance of listening to patients, providing respectful care and addressing implicit bias and provide opportunities for discussion and feedback

Toolkit


**Key Resource
The following material is an example only and not meant to be prescriptive. The resources provided in this toolkit are for informational purposes only. The exclusion of a resource, program, or website does not reflect the quality of that resource, program or website. Note: websites and URLs are subject to change.

Webinars


  • Upcoming Webinars

  • Recordings/Slides

    • March 18, 2024: Expanding Patient Access to Community-Based Doulas
    • February 19, 2024: Holding Respectful Care Breakfasts – Lessons Learned
    • January 22, 2024: Patient Partners on BE QI Teams – how to make it happen!
    • December 11, 2023: Sustainable Equity Strategies to Promote Postpartum Safety
    • September 18, 2023: REDCap PREM Data Dashboard Review
    • Birth Equity 2023 QI Summer Series Slides
    • August 21, 2023: Meaningful Connections for SDoH Linkages
    • July 17, 2023: The Importance of Patient Voices – Engaging Patient Partners on QI Teams
    • June 5, 2023: Key Takeaways from F2F and Next Steps for Getting to Green on Key Strategies
    • April 17, 2023: Using PREM Survey Data Feedback to Improve Respectful Care
    • March 20, 2023: Strategies to Increase PREM Survey Completion
    • February 20, 2023: Achievable Patient/Community Engagement Strategies
    • December 19, 2022: Actionable Respectful Care Strategies and PREM Survey Implementation 
    • September 19, 2022: Postpartum Safety Patient Education
    • August 15th, 2022: Implementing postpartum early schedule two-weeks 
    • August 2nd, 2022: BE QI Topic Call for PREM and RCP
    • July 18th, 2022: BE Review of Key Strategies & Team Sharing
    • April 18th, 2022: Engaging patients and community in QI / Birth Equity work
    • February 21st, 2022: Implementing a comprehensive implicit bias training for provider/nurse education
    • January 31st, 2022: Recap of topics covered so far…SDoH Screening Tool and Respectful Care & PREM
    • December 20th, 2021: Implementing Respectful Care Practices and PREM 
    • November 15th, 2021: Universal Social Determinants of Health Screening and mapping resources
    • September 20th, 2021: Review maternal health quality data stratified by race, ethnicity, and Medicaid status  
    • August 16th, 2021: Optimizing race / ethnicity data collection for OB patients 
    • June 21st, 2021: Birth Equity Statewide Launch Call
    • July 30th, 2021: Birth Equity Data Discussion Webinar 

Birth Equity
Clinical Leadership

  • Ann Borders
  • Barrett Robinson

  • Daniell Ashford

  • Emily White VanGompel

  • Jamila Pleas

  • Kai Tao

  • Robin Jones