The American Hospital Association and EHR vendor Epic are partnering to help more hospitals adopt tools designed to better detect and treat postpartum hemorrhage, a leading cause of maternal death in the U.S.
Announced July 24 in a news release, the initiative encourages the use of EHR-embedded tools that support clinicians in preventing, identifying and managing postpartum hemorrhage at the point of care.
The toolkit, available to users of Epic’s Stork Obstetrics Information System, includes risk assessments that update throughout the childbirth process, clinical decision-support guides tailored to risk levels, and treatment tools for active hemorrhage — all embedded within existing workflows. Epic noted that similar capabilities could be implemented in other EHR systems with appropriate permissions.
As part of the collaboration, AHA and Epic plan to bring together experts from AHA’s Patient Safety Initiative and Epic’s user community to raise awareness, share implementation resources and spotlight hospitals reporting improved outcomes.
Two early adopters — Baptist Health in Little Rock, Ark. and WakeMed in Raleigh, N.C. — have begun seeing promising results. Baptist Health implemented a phased rollout that included the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses’ risk assessment tool, a maternal emergency narrator, a blood loss calculator and comprehensive staff training drills.
Postpartum hemorrhage accounts for approximately 11% of maternal deaths in the U.S., and an estimated 40% of such hemorrhages occur in patients without known risk factors, according to the news release.
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