The Leapfrog Group Releases Maternity Care Report

This week The Leapfrog Group released its Maternity Care Report, an in-depth examination of hospital quality and safety for early elective deliveries, episiotomies and high-risk deliveries, with data analysis by Castlight Health.

Though the analysis of hospitals nationwide demonstrates substantial progress in recent years, it also reveals significant room for improvement on maternity care standards. In fact, less than a third of hospitals meet Leapfrog’s standard for high-risk deliveries of very low birth weight babies, while rates of episiotomies are still too high at 35 percent of birthing hospitals.

The report is the first in a series of six reports examining key quality and safety measures at hospitals nationwide based on data from the 2014 Leapfrog Hospital Survey of 1,501 U.S. hospitals.

Several NBCH-member coalitions have focused on preventing medically unnecessary early elective deliveries. The Midwest Business Group on Health received a grant from NBCH and the United Health Foundation to convene health care stakeholders in Illinois and develop a community action plan to reduce the high number of early inductions and C-sections performed. And the Virginia Business Coalition on Health Foundation also has a program focused on education to ensure babies are born full term.

New Case Study Examines South Carolina's Initiative to Improve Birth Outcomes

A new case study released by Catalyst for Payment Reform (CPR) with support from the Milbank Memorial Fund shares the story of South Carolina’s Birth Outcomes Initiative (BOI). The case study chronicles how South Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services, South Carolina’s largest commercial health plan, and many other stakeholders partnered to engage providers in quality improvement activities, and then agreed together to stop paying for early elective deliveries—those occurring before 39 weeks gestation. Early elective deliveries are associated with worse health outcomes for infants and mothers and higher health care costs. Despite the overwhelming evidence against early elective deliveries, an estimated 10 to 15 percent of babies in the U.S. continue to be delivered early without medical cause.

The South Carolina BOI has so far reduced unwarranted early-elective inductions by 50 percent, decreased neonatal intensive care unit admissions, and saved the State’s Department of Health and Human Services more than $6 million (in just the first quarter of 2013). South Carolina is the first state in the nation in which the Medicaid agency and the largest commercial insurer have collaborated to establish a policy of nonpayment for early elective deliveries.

Leapfrog Group releases 2011 results to reduce early elective deliveries

This week The Leapfrog Group announced the 2011 results from the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey indicating that hospitals are making progress in eliminating early elective newborn deliveries, with 39% of reporting hospitals keeping their early elective delivery rate to 5% or less, compared to 30% of reporting hospitals last year.

Additional information can be found here.