South Carolina is unique in that its perinatal quality collaborative, the South Carolina Birth Outcomes Initiative, has been led by the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (SCDHHS) Medicaid program since its inception. The SCBOI is a collaboration of SCDHHS, SC Hospital Association, March of Dimes, Blue Cross Blue Shield of SC, and more than 100 partners who together share the goal of improving health outcomes for mothers and newborns not only in the Medicaid program but throughout the state’s population.
Some of their goals include:
- eliminating elective inductions for non-medically indicated deliveries prior to 39 weeks,
- supporting the CenteringPregnancy® Model,
- immediate inpatient insertion of long acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs),
- implementing a universal screening and referral tool (SBIRT) to screen pregnant women during pregnancy and after delivery,
- sustaining programs for the management of substance-exposed infants,
- supporting the reduction of cesarean sections for first-time, low-risk mothers,
- disseminating education and training to promote safe sleep, and
- promoting Baby-Friendly certified hospitals and breastfeeding.
Recent additional areas of focus have centered on reducing severe maternal morbidity and maternal mortality by expanding access to postpartum care and perinatal community health workers and implementing statewide maternal safety bundles through the SC AIM initiative. These goals are implemented with the support of workgroups centered on access and care coordination, infant care, behavioral health, quality and patient safety, and data. To read more about the South Carolina Birth Outcomes Initiative, visit SC DHHS.
The Division of Integrated Health and Policy Research at the University of South Carolina Institute for Families in Society has provided technical assistance, consultation, and evaluation for SCBOI since it helped to form the initiative in 2011. Data and quality improvement tips provided by IFS for this work may be reviewed on the IFS-developed SCBOI dashboard. Below are some of the products developed.