Childbirth Connection “2020 Vision” reports released!

GNM 100104 Childbirth Connection “2020 Vision” reports relea

Posted by: "Susan Hodges"

Thu Jan 28, 2010 5:36 am (PST)

Grassroots Network Message 100104
Childbirth Connection “2020 Vision” reports released!
Dear Friends,
This is just in from Childbirth Connection! I have not had time
to read the reports yet, but I expect they will prove to be
extremely valuable resources and powerful support for maternity
care reforms that include evidence-based care and midwives!!
Sincerely,
Susan Hodges, “gatekeeper”
______________________________________________________
RELEASE: Landmark Maternity Care Reports Issued; Consumers,
Providers Hammer Out Recommendations
Please read below about two new reports developed over the past
two years through a multi-stakeholder collaborative process:
“2020 Vision for a High-Quality, High-Value Maternity Care
System” and “Blueprint for Action.” These reports
incorporate the thinking of over 100 maternity care leaders
representing every industry stakeholder – from hospitals and
health plans to consumers and providers. The recommendations in
these reports are expected to have major impact on health care
reform and on the future of birth in the US. They include
specific proposals to overhaul the payment system, improve the
liability system, and steps to reduce harm, improve quality and
women’s experiences of care.
-----
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 28, 2010
Contact: Kat Song - katsong@childbirthconnection.org

Childbirth Connection Releases Landmark Reports For Revamping
U.S. Maternity Care System
That Point To Rapid Gains in Quality and Value
Consumers, Providers and Other Groups Hammer Out System-Wide
Recommendations and Action Steps
Washington DC - Childbirth Connection today released two
landmark reports that create a framework for revamping maternity
care in the US and advancing health care reform: “2020 Vision
for a High Quality, High Value Maternity Care System” and
“Blueprint for Action.” The reports were developed
through an extensive multi-year collaboration with more than 100
maternity care leaders representing industry stakeholders –
from hospitals and health plans to consumers and providers. These
reports and related papers have just been published in a special
supplement of Women’s Health Issues.
"Recognizing that rapid gains in the quality, value and outcomes
of maternity care are well within reach, Childbirth Connection
launched its Transforming Maternity Care project
<http://www.childbirthconnection.org/tmc/> several years
ago,” said Maureen Corry, executive director, Childbirth
Connection. Although a wealth of high-quality evidence and
experiences of high-performing segments of the maternity care
system were readily available to improve maternity care, these
resources were not impacting most women and newborns. “It was
time to act and we called upon key leaders across the health care
system to develop a long-term vision for the future of maternity
care in the United States. This vision served as a starting point
for a collaborative process to develop action steps for
broad-based maternity care system improvement,” said Corry.
Maternity care is the runaway leader in hospital charges and is
the number one reason for hospitalization in the country.
Maternal and newborn hospital charges alone exceeded $86 billion
in 2007, with employers and private insurers paying for 50% of
all births and Medicaid paying for 42%. While most childbearing
women and their babies are healthy and at low risk, the current
style of maternity care is technology-intensive. Costly
childbirth procedures that entail risk are overused and wasteful,
while proven ones that are generally safer and less expensive are
underutilized. Marked disparities in access, quality and outcomes
persist, with many maternal and newborn health indicators moving
in the wrong direction. The return on investment for our
significant expenditure in this important sector is poor.
"The good news is that every challenge is an opportunity for
improvement that can benefit millions of mothers and babies
annually. The ‘2020 Vision’ developed by a
multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder team, puts forth the
values, principles and attributes of an optimal maternity care
system and describes fundamental goals for a system meeting those
criteria,” said Rima Jolivet, Transforming Maternity Care
Project Director, Childbirth Connection. “With the ‘2020
Vision’ in hand, five stakeholder workgroups collaborated to
develop reports with recommendations and action steps for moving
toward the vision,” said Jolivet.
Stakeholder workgroup chairs presented their reports and
recommendations at an invitational policy symposium commemorating
Childbirth Connection’s 90th anniversary. Transforming
Maternity Care: A High Value Proposition was held at Georgetown
University, Washington DC, in April 2009. Invited discussants,
moderators and the audience provided comments to strengthen the
reports and recommendations. The Transforming Maternity Care
Steering Committee then synthesized the workgroup reports and
additional feedback into the direction-setting report,
“Blueprint for Action: Steps Toward a High-Quality,
High-Value Maternity Care System.” The Blueprint answers the
question “Who needs to do what, to, with and for whom to
improve the quality of maternity care over the next five
years?” Actionable strategies to improve maternity care
quality and value are centered on eleven critical focus areas for
change:
- Performance measurement and leveraging of results
- Payment reform to align incentives with quality
- Disparities in access and outcomes of maternity care
- Improved functioning of the liability system
- Scope of covered maternity care services
- Coordination of care across time, settings and disciplines
- Clinical controversies
- Decision-making and consumer choice
- Scope, content and availability of health professions
education
- Workforce composition and distribution
- Development and use of health information technology
"A great achievement of the project is the remarkable level of
consensus that was reached by the workgroups through an in-depth,
collaborative process to arrive at negotiated agreements and
sound proposals for tackling complex issues,” said Ned
Calonge, Chief Medical Officer, Colorado Department of Public
Health and Environment who served as Chair of the workgroup for
Maternity Care Clinicians and Health Professions Educators.
The Blueprint for Action is the first step in a long-term
initiative to undertake collaborative national, regional, and
local endeavors to improve maternity care quality and value. At
the briefing, Corry announced the establishment of a
public-private Transforming Maternity Care Partnership to carry
out the next phase of the project and implement Blueprint steps
to accelerate health system change.
"We welcome all maternity care stakeholders to identify relevant
Blueprint steps and join this effort to attain rapid achievable
gains in maternity care quality and value on behalf of
childbearing women and newborns,” said Donna Lynne, President
of Kaiser Permanente Health Plan of Colorado and Transforming
Maternity Care Steering Committee member.
The "2020 Vision" and "Blueprint for Action" reports are freely
available on the Women's Health Issues website at:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/issue/5192-2010-999799998.89\
98-1591119
To learn more about the Transforming Maternity Care project,
please visit:
http://www.childbirthconnection.org/tmc/

For a fact sheet on maternity care in the United States, go to:
http://www.childbirth 
connection.org/article.asp?ck=10621
About Childbirth Connection
Founded in 1918, Childbirth Connection (
www.ChildbirthConnection.org
<http://www.ChildbirthConnection.org> ) is a not-for-profit
organization working to improve the quality of maternity care
through research, education, advocacy and policy. As a voice for
the needs and interests of over 4.3 million women who give birth
annually, Childbirth Connection uses best research evidence and
the results of its periodic national Listening to Mothers surveys
to inform policy, practice, education and research.
# # #
Kat Song
Director of Public Affairs
www. <http://www.childbirthconnection.org />
ChildbirthConnection .org
<http://www.childbirthconnection.org />
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