New York City Health + Hospitals looking to reduce racial disparities in maternal mortality

New York City Health and Hospitals is expanding its obstetrics simulation labs throughout the system to help reduce maternal deaths and life-threatening complications during childbirth, the health system told Crain’s.

The labs are in the process of being created. Funding for the expansion was included in the city’s $12.8 million allocation to support programming through the Health Department and Health and Hospitals that is aimed at reducing maternal mortality among women of color, the health system said. Six hospitals are being outfitted with the labs, which will use technology and full-body mannequins to replicate complications including embolisms, massive hemorrhages and seizures from high blood pressure, it said.

Health and Hospitals said its Bellevue, Elmhurst, Harlem, Kings County, Jacobi and Lincoln campuses will house the labs. The goal is to have more than 85% of labor and delivery personnel complete a range of emergency simulations on an ongoing basis, the health system said. Staff from the system’s blood bank and code teams also will participate, it said.

As of earlier this year, more than 1,000 physicians, anesthesiologists, nurses, midwives and physician assistants across the health system had completed simulation training focused on obstetrics life support, Health and Hospitals said. Most of that work was carried out at one location, though: an existing simulation center at Health and Hospitals/Jacobi.

“Six locations increases capacity and access to training,” said Dr. Wendy Wilcox, chairwoman of the department of obstetrics, gynecology and women’s health at Health and Hospitals/Kings County.

The team that put together the courses had training in implicit bias, Wilcox said, and the goal was to embed some of that training in the work. Although developing a more standardized approach to care doesn’t by itself eliminate disparities, it helps establish a baseline of care, she said.

A new statewide analysis from the New York State Health Foundation found that significant disparities across racial and ethnic groups persist when it comes to serious complications related to childbirth. Black women were 2.3 times more likely than white women to experience the complications in 2018, the foundation said.