The Pennsylvania Perinatal Quality Collaborative (PA PQC) was launched in April 2019 as an action arm of the Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) with funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs and the Henry L. Hillman Foundation.
Over 140 people from all the regions of the commonwealth worked together to establish the PA PQC through an Advisory Group and a series of work groups on maternal opioid use disorder (OUD), neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), and maternal mortality. Members represented state agencies, providers, health system associations, provider associations, health plans, community-based organizations, researchers, foundations, quality improvement collaboratives, and advocates.
To position the PA PQC to expand its focus from OUD to substance use disorders (SUD) and from NAS to substance-exposed newborns (SEN), the PA PQC reconvened statewide Work Groups to update its Driver Diagrams and quality measures for maternal SUD and SEN.
The PA PQC Advisory Group is currently chaired by James Cook, MD and Aasta Mehta, MD, MPP.
Over 60 birth sites and NICUs and over 10 health plans across the commonwealth are actively identifying perinatal processes in need of improvement and advocating for the adoption of these best practices to achieve the common aims.
Resources:
- Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review (2021 Report)
- Pregnancy-Associated Deaths in Pennsylvania (2013-2018)
- View a letter from the PA Physician General here