The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) recently released the first Maternal Mortality Review Panel (MMRP) report outlining recommendations to reduce maternal mortality and improve care for women across the state. The MMRP was created through legislation to complete a formal review of maternal deaths in Washington State for 2014 and 2015, and “to identify factors associated with those deaths and make recommendations for system changes to improve health care services for women in this state.”
The recommendations provided by the MMRP are contained within the report. As next steps the DOH and Washington State Perinatal Collaborative have convened several expert subcommittees to turn the recommendations into action.
The advocacy provided by WSHA’s government affairs department was a vital component to the passing of the MMRP legislation. WSHA’s Safe Deliveries Roadmap program has been a vocal proponent of this endeavor and a strong partner in the MMRP activities and resulting subcommittee work to address the MMRP recommendations.
The Safe Deliveries Roadmap continues to highlight the need for maternal morbidity and mortality prevention by providing education, tools and resources to identify early warning signs for maternal hemorrhage, severe hypertension, sepsis and cardiopulmonary events, first through our Maternal Early Warning Signs cohort this past spring, and now with the upcoming state-wide program launch this fall. Preparing hospital teams for readiness, recognition and response to severe maternal events is an important step in reducing incidence of maternal morbidity and mortality. (Janine Reisinger)
