This funding will allow us to take that work further and implement ideas that maternal health partners in New Hampshire have been desiring for many years.
Julie S. Bosak, DrPH, CNM, MSN
Over the next five years, the New Hampshire Perinatal Quality Collaborative (NHPQC), a program of Dartmouth Health’s Population Health department, will enhance its work with a broad cross section of statewide community partners with a recently awarded Maternal Health Innovation grant of about $5 million. These partners include pregnant and parenting persons, healthcare providers and hospitals, community organizations and organizers, and officials from the New Hampshire Department of Public Health Services’ Maternal Child Health (MCH) Division. The grant will enable expansion of existing efforts to improve maternal health, especially among those in New Hampshire who are most impacted by adverse outcomes.
This award, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Human Services Research Administration, will provide about $1 million annually for five years.
Similar to national trends, maternal health outcomes in New Hampshire vary significantly by race, ethnicity, insurance status, maternal educational achievement, and where one lives. With this funding, NHPQC will work to reduce these gaps in health outcome and to improve birthing experience and outcomes for all people in New Hampshire.
“This grant provides important support for our ongoing work to advance health equity in our region,” said Sally A. Kraft, MD, Dartmouth Health’s Population Health officer. “We are committed to working with our patients and our community partners to improve the conditions that impact health and healthcare, so everyone can be as healthy as possible.”
As part of the project, NHPQC will work closely with MCH, New Hampshire hospitals (including members of Dartmouth Health), community organizations, birthing people, and other maternal health advocates to convene a Maternal Health Task Force and stand up 13 community perinatal coalitions. The Task Force will craft a comprehensive strategic plan to guide system and community improvements, including state-level maternal health surveillance data and community-based, innovative initiatives, with a focus on people most impacted by poor maternal outcomes, including maternal death. These coalitions, inclusive of women and birthing people across the state, will help identify and implement improvements tailored to the needs of each community.
“We are purposefully building connections and bringing voices to the table who have often been excluded or unheard in decision making,” said Julie S. Bosak, DrPH, CNM, MSN, director of NHPQC.
NHPQC is part of the same team responsible for the Northern New England Perinatal Quality Improvement Network, a Dartmouth Health-based organization which fosters sharing of perinatal knowledge and best practices between hospitals in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. It has worked with MCH for over two decades to improve perinatal data systems and implement research-based improvements in birthing hospitals in New Hampshire.
“There is a long history of collaboration and partnerships to improve maternal health in New Hampshire,” said Bosak. “This funding will allow us to take that work further and implement ideas that maternal health partners in New Hampshire have been desiring for many years. We’re especially proud that NHPQC is intentionally involving pregnant and parenting people in planning decisions and community projects, so that our improvement work is guided by their strengths, needs, and desires.”
For more information on NHPQC, visit bit.ly/3BCggCW.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.