By NextBestFitHospital safety bundles and review committees
Require hemorrhage and hypertension protocols and review every death.
Proven in California.
Review ledgerHow this path connects
This path
Hospital safety bundles and review committees
Concrete changes if chosen
What would actually have to change in law, agencies, payment rules, or systems.
- Require hemorrhage and hypertension protocols in all hospitals
- Fund maternal mortality review committees
Effects
Each effect has its own page: the evidence, the case that it is or isn't a real cost, and whom it affects.
What it fixes
- High maternal mortality and postpartum coverage gaps
Required hemorrhage and hypertension protocols and review of every death provide a proven, low-cost approach to maternal safety.
What it creates or worsens
- Depends on other changes to work
Maternal safety protocols and death reviews depend on hospital participation and data reporting.
- Directs benefits or burdens imperfectly
Smaller rural hospitals may lack the resources needed to adopt maternal safety protocols and death reviews.
Who's affected
Who gains
- Pregnant and postpartum people and infants
- High maternal mortality and postpartum coverage gaps: High maternal mortality and postpartum coverage gaps especially harm Black women.
- Black, Hispanic, and Native communities
- High maternal mortality and postpartum coverage gaps: High maternal mortality and postpartum coverage gaps especially harm Black women.
Who loses
- Hospitals, clinics, and care organizations
- Depends on other changes to work: Maternal safety protocols and death reviews depend on hospital participation and data reporting.
Other ways to soften the losses
- Fund rural hospitals to adopt bundles
Where it has been tried
- California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative: Cut maternal mortality significantly.
- California, United States: During 2015–2016, severe maternal complications among hemorrhage patients fell 20.8% in California safety-bundle hospitals, versus 1.2% in comparison hospitals.