Leveraging Connections in the Community
AIM CCI is taking a unique approach to improving maternal health outcomes by partnering directly with local community organizations. Local organizations understand the unique experiences and unmet social needs of birthing persons in their region. Through this partnership, we are seeking to build a culture and structure of health care that ensures birthing persons receive equitable treatment based on all of their needs.
Our Core Philosophy
By elevating the voice and wisdom of the community, we can close the gap between what care birthing persons need and what the clinical system offers.
Important Elements of the Process
Equity Framework
Every step of our process is built on an equity framework. The goal is to begin with the framework and inculcate equity to discover and address the systemic, structural, and racial inequities that are the root cause of negative maternal health outcomes.
Pilot Sites
AIM CCI chose a small number of communities experiencing high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity to be the first set of pilot sites for this initiative. These pilot sites will be implementing non-hospital focused maternal safety bundles with the guidance of their local maternal safety workgroup and National Maternal Safety Committee (NMSC).
Non-Hospital Focused Maternal Safety Bundles
A non-hospital focused maternal safety bundle is a set of evidence-based practices which when implemented collectively and reliably improve outcomes and reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. The bundles address needs and priorities in the community and outpatient settings, determined by an analysis of existing data.
When care processes are grouped into these simple bundles, health care practitioners are more likely to change the way they work in order to implement the bundles.
Local Maternal Safety Workgroups
Within each pilot site, the local maternal safety workgroup is made up of all community prenatal and postpartum providers and stakeholders. These local workgroups meet to share ideas and experiences in order to support one another in implementing the maternal safety bundles. This process ensures the integration of the best practices of the maternal safety bundles into the community and clinical settings. These groups also provide valuable feedback on how maternal safety bundles can be improved.
National Maternal Safety Committee
AIM CCI formed a national maternal safety committee made up of experts in community-focused public health and clinical settings. The national committee’s knowledge and experience helped inform and support the creation of a first phase of non-hospital focused maternal safety bundles.
Continuous Quality Improvement
As pilot sites and local maternal safety workgroups implement safety bundles, they will report subsequent data to AIM CCI. We then analyze the structure, process, and outcome data in order to drive continuous quality improvement in the maternal safety bundles and implementation process.