Hospital Recognized for Helping Address Maternal Health Disparities

The emergency care teams at Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center have been recognized for their efforts to better identify pregnancy-related complications and root out biases while treating them.

The Maryland Patient Safety Center has honored Shady Grove Medical Center for completing its B.I.R.T.H. Equity Maryland: Breaking Inequality Reimagining Transformative Healthcare. This statewide improvement program educates non-obstetric providers about pregnancy-related complications and disparities that drive negative maternal outcomes. 

The Maryland Patient Safety Center designed the program in partnership with the Maryland Hospital Association and local experts in maternal health, emergency medicine, family practice, community health, and health equity. Shady Grove Medical Center is the first hospital in Montgomery County to complete the program.

According to the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC), non-Hispanic Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications compared with non-Hispanic White women, even when adjusting for sociodemographic and reproductive factors. Systemic racism, bias, and discrimination are key drivers of these disparities in outcomes. CDC data from 2022 shows that 80 percent of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. Pregnant and postpartum patients are often seen in primary care offices, clinics, emergency departments, or other community health settings, where their obstetric history and early symptoms may be underappreciated.

In the B.I.R.T.H. Equity program, doctors, nurses, and other caregivers in Shady Grove Medical Center’s Emergency Department learned to better recognize emergent signs of severe maternal morbidity and mortality. The program helped them implement improvements in protocols, identify how potential bias might play a part in care, and have tools to communicate concerns more effectively about a patient’s well-being.

“We applaud Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center for completing the B.I.R.T.H. Equity Maryland training and taking the necessary steps to understand and address postpartum complications and begin to reduce the significant health equity issues that exist,” said Stephanie Peditto, president and CEO of the Maryland Patient Safety Center. “Non-obstetric providers in primary and emergency care settings play such an important role in really hearing patients’ concerns and identifying and acting on severe maternal warning signs in the postpartum period.”

Designation Criteria

To earn the B.I.R.T.H. Equity Maryland designation, at least 80 percent of the Shady Grove Medical Center team had to complete six learning steps that included recognizing early warning signs of obstetric complications, leveraging teamwork and communication strategies, identifying and mitigating biases through training and reflection, and creating systems that support safe care for birthing people.

“The United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality of all industrialized countries,” noted Adriane Burgess, director of Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at the Maryland Patient Safety Center. “We know it will take innovative approaches and a collective determination across the entire health-care continuum to reverse this trend. Thank you to Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center for their commitment to moving Maryland forward and keeping patients safe.”

“We are immensely proud of our emergency care teams at Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center for their dedication to advancing maternal health equity,” said Neil Roy, the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer. “This recognition underscores our dedication to equipping our emergency teams with the knowledge and tools needed to provide equitable, life-saving care to all patients, especially those most vulnerable.”

B.I.R.T.H. Equity Maryland deepens Shady Grove Medical Center’s commitment to providing families with comprehensive and compassionate Pregnancy Care & Birth services. Its Birth Center helps families welcome 4,500 babies a year. The hospital offers a high-level neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for premature newborns or those with more complex medical needs. Earlier this year, Shady Grove Medical Center earned the Maryland Patient Safety Center’s highest honor for innovation for a program that ensures all families have access to donor breastmilk, addressing a disparity in infant feeding options.

Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center is the largest hospital in the Adventist HealthCare system. Shady Grove’s services include emergency care; a Birth Center, NICU and specialized children’s units; a freestanding cancer center; and nationally recognized surgery programs. Shady Grove is also Maryland’s second largest provider of mental health services. More than 2,500 team members carry out its mission, to extend God’s care through a ministry of physical, mental, and spiritual healing.

The original version of this story was posted on the Adventist HealthCare news site.