Staff Contact: Alison Williams
CMS now is displaying its “birthing-friendly” hospital designation on Medicare’s Care Compare website and through a new mapping tool. The designation, adopted last year and included in the CMS Inpatient Quality Reporting Program, identifies hospitals and health systems that participate in a statewide or national perinatal quality improvement collaborative program and implement evidence-based care to improve maternal health.
MHA leads and facilitates the Missouri Perinatal Quality Collaborative to support birthing organizations, providers and stakeholders in maternal and infant health. Currently, 47 hospital birthing units have joined quality improvement collaborative efforts with the MO PQC. Recent additional funding opportunities will allow the MO PQC to advance supportive efforts to increase implementation of evidence-based practice, create clinical-community linkages and align with state and regional efforts to improve equitable health outcomes from mothers and infants.