Blessed Beginnings: The Birth Center of Blessing Hospital has been recognized for its work with the Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative’s (ILPQC) Birth Equity Initiative. The Birth Equity Initiative focuses on strategies to address disparities in birth outcomes for women of color in Illinois.
ILPQC statistics show non-Hispanic Black women are approximately three times more likely than non-Hispanic white women to die during or within a year of pregnancy from a related complication, and compared to non-Hispanic white women, all other racial and ethnic groups have higher rates of severe complications during pregnancy and in the year postpartum.
Blessed Beginnings was recognized for meeting key structure measures and process outcome measures of the Initiative including standardizing social determinates of health screening tools for screening all pregnant women during hospital stays, implementing a protocol for improving the collection and accuracy of patient-reported race/ethnicity data, developing a process to review maternal health quality data stratified by race/ethnicity and Medicaid status, engaging patients and community members to provide input on quality improvement efforts, and developing a strategy for sharing expected respectful care practices with delivery staff and patients.
ILPQC is a nationally recognized statewide network of hospital teams, perinatal clinicians, patients, public health leaders and policymakers committed to improving health care and outcomes for mothers and babies across Illinois.