Owensboro Health Regional Hospital has been recognized by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Kentucky with a Blue Distinction Centers+ (BDC+) for Maternity Care designation. The recognition is given to facilities that display high quality of care as well as address the need for affordable care.
“We’re really proud to be recognized for it because what this award really shows is the high-quality care that we provide here,” said Jessica Crisp, OHRH Director of Nursing for Maternity Services. “They look at patient experience scores and compare that to other facilities.
In 2020, the Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity Care Program was expanded beyond traditional outcome measures to include assessments of internal quality improvement, data collection and dissemination, and internal protocols that better address clinical quality and equity issues in maternity care.
New in the evaluation cycle, facilities must collect race ethnicity data, have a maternal quality improvement program, commence drills and simulations for adverse events, and have dedicated protocols and procedures for the management of hypertension and hemorrhage.
Facilities eligible for the Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity care show statistically significant differences in key clinical outcomes compared to their peers.
“We had to ensure our staff had enhanced education for those things,” Crisp said. “We had to send extra education to providers. We are doing an OB hypertension escape room. We have constant quality improvement groups that meet that include staff, nurses, and providers, and they focus on how to improve the care we provide. We have teams working on things all the time to make the care better, always keeping patient experience at the top-of-mind.”
According to a release from Owensboro Health, “racial and ethnic disparities are persistent and widespread across maternal healthcare, primarily driven by socioeconomic status, geographic location, and implicit provider bias. Compared to similarly developed countries such as Canada, Germany and Australia, the United State has the highest maternal mortality rate (MMR), at approximately 17.4 deaths per 100,000 live births, with the MMR steadily increasing since 2000. According to the CDC, non-Hispanic Black women are two to three times more likely to die from preventable or treatable pregnancy-related complications compared to white women.”
Crisp acknowledged that racial disparity is a major topic in health care right now, especially in women’s health care.
“Health-wise we offer diversity education here for all of our staff,” she said. “We’re really focused on this with our patients. We collect data on that. We had a pretty high Spanish population here and a high Burmese population that we see. With different ethnicities you have to keep in mind what they want at delivery, how they want to feed their baby, different culture aspects that they might do for the care of their baby. We want to make sure we are meeting their needs.”
Overall, cost of care episodes for vaginal and cesarean births at BDC+ facilities like OHRH are 20% less than those at non-Blue Distinction Centers+ facilities, according to the OH release. The rates of episiotomies were 49% less those at Blue Distinction Centers (BDC and BDC+) than those at non-Blue Distinction Centers.
“Since 2006, the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program has helped patients find quality specialty care in the areas of bariatric surgery, cancer care, cardiac care, cellular immunotherapy, fertility care, gene therapy, knee and hip replacement, maternity care, spine surgery, substance use treatment and recovery, and transplants, while encouraging healthcare professionals to improve the care they deliver,” the release reads. “Research shows that, compared to other providers, those designated as Blue Distinction Centers demonstrate better quality and improved outcomes for patients.”
Crisp said it’s especially meaningful to earn the award in a year that took a major toll on the health care industry.
“Everyone here is proud of the work they have done and we know it’s going to enhance the care of the patients,” she said. “We try to go above and beyond for our patients.”
