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. 2023 Apr 1;141(4):857-860.
doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000005116. Epub 2023 Mar 9.

Severe Maternal Morbidity Review and Preventability Assessment in a Large Academic Center

Olga Grechukhina  1 , Heather S Lipkind, Lisbet S Lundsberg, Audrey A Merriam, Cheryl Raab, Daisy Leon-Martinez, Katherine H Campbell
Affiliations

Severe Maternal Morbidity Review and Preventability Assessment in a Large Academic Center

Olga Grechukhina et al. Obstet Gynecol. .

Abstract

With the goal of identifying factors contributing to severe maternal morbidity (SMM) at our institution, we established a formal SMM review process. We performed a retrospective cohort study including all SMM cases as defined by American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine consensus criteria that were managed at Yale-New Haven Hospital over a 4-year period. Overall, 156 cases were reviewed. The SMM rate was 0.49% (95% CI 0.40-0.58). The leading causes of SMM were hemorrhage (44.9%) and nonintrauterine infection (14.1%). Two thirds of the cases were deemed to be preventable. Preventability was mostly associated with health care professional-level (79.4%) and system-level (58.8%) factors that could coexist. Detailed case review allowed for identification of preventable causes of SMM, revealed gaps in care, and allowed for implementation of practice changes targeting health care professional-level and system-level factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Financial Disclosure The authors did not report any potential conflicts of interest.

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