Clear and accurate data about the health of women is lacking in Harris County, Texas and across the United States. While experts agree that the rate of maternal mortality is high and must be addressed, the actual rate of maternal mortality is unknown due to the poor quality of data used to assess the rate. As a result, the ability to effectively allocate resources to prevent new cases of mortality and severe morbidities is diminished.
In keeping with recommendations from Improving Maternal Health in Harris County: A Community Plan, released in 2018 by a steering committee of health leaders convened by Houston Endowment, healthcare leaders in Harris County propose to implement a maternal health data registry that will demonstrate the ability of hospitals to collect and submit high-quality data, identify meaningful metrics for tracking adverse maternal health outcomes and opportunities for prevention, and inform plans for future data collection on a statewide scale.
As not to burden hospitals with significant amounts of data collection, the demonstration project proposes to track only cases of mortality and select severe morbidities. Of the approximately 50,000 births in Harris County each year, these cases are expected to represent two to three percent of hospital births in the county.
For more information about having your hospital participate in the data registry demonstration project, please contact us.
Data Registry Planning Council
Dr. Sean Blackwell – UTHealth McGovern School of Medicine/UT Physicians (Chair)
Dr. David Buck – University of Houston College of Medicine
Dr. Cecilia Cazaban – UTHealth School of Public Health
Dr. Christina Davidson – Texas Children’s Hospital Pavilion for Women/Baylor College of Medicine
Dr. Catherine Eppes – Harris Health
Elizabeth Love – Houston Endowment
Dr. Vian Nguyen – Legacy Community Health
Pam Perez – HCA Healthcare
Darrell Pile – SouthEast Texas Regional Advisory Committee
Dr. George Saade – University of Texas Medical Branch
Dr. Eugene Toy – Baylor College of Medicine