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CME Credit Offered
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Abstract Award
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Poster Session 3

(696) Implementation of birth equity strategies in a statewide quality improvement initiative supports equitable care efforts

Friday, January 31, 2025
10:30 AM – 12:30 PM  

    Coauthor(s)

  • Patricia Lee King, PhD (she/her/hers)

    State Project Director and Quality Lead, Research Assistant Professor
    Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative, Northwestern University
    Chicago, Illinois, United States

  • AS

    Aleena Surenian, MPH

    Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative, Northwestern University
    Chicago, Illinois, United States

  • LS

    Lavisha Singh, MS

    Endeavor Health, Evanston Hospital
    Evanston, Illinois, United States

  • AR

    Alana Rivera, MSN, RN

    Nurse Quality Manager
    Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative, Endeavor Health, Evanston Hospital
    Evanston, Illinois, United States

    • Submitting Author and Presenting Author(s)

  • Ann EB Borders, MD, MPH, MSc (she/her/hers)

    Ian Bernard Horowitz Chair of Obstetrics, Clinical Professor
    Endeavor Health, Evanston Hospital
    Evanston, IL, United States

Objective: The Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative (ILPQC) Birth Equity (BE) quality improvement (QI) initiative, launched in July 2021 to implement key actionable strategies to address birth equity across Illinois hospitals. We aim to identify hospital team progress towards meeting initiative goals from baseline (Oct-Dec 2020) to initiative end and transition to sustainability (Jan-Mar/Q1 2024).

Study Design: ILPQC facilitated collaborative learning, rapid-response data and QI support for hospitals. Hospitals reported monthly progress on implementation of key systems changes, including staff respectful care and implicit bias education. Hospitals also conducted a monthly review of 10 randomly sampled patient charts to evaluate progress on Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) screening and documentation of linkage to resources. Chi-square tests analyzed birthing hospitals’ progress on key systems changes and implementation differences by hospital characteristics from baseline to initiative end Q1 2024. Generalized linear mixed models, adjusted for hospital characteristics, were used to evaluate progress on staff education, SDOH screening and SDOH linkage.

Results: 63 participating hospitals were included. Hospital teams significantly increased implementation of all BE key systems changes between baseline and Q1 2024, regardless of hospital characteristics (Table 1). Staff receiving education on respectful care and implicit bias increased from 21% at baseline to 93% in Q1 2024 (p< .0001). SDOH screening increased from 17% at baseline to 92% in Q1 2024 (7% per quarter, p< .0001). SDOH linkage to resources increased from 57% at baseline to 78% in Q1 2024 (1% per quarter, p=.034, Figure 1).

Conclusion: The results suggest that a statewide collaborative can facilitate equitable implementation of key Birth Equity strategies through a QI initiative. Hospital teams submitted plans to sustain these improvements by engaging patient partners to obtain respectful care feedback, partner with community organizations to improve SDOH linkages and continue to disaggregate data by race, ethnicity and insurance status.