Perinatal Quality Collaboratives

Many states currently have active collaboratives, and others are in development. Visit State Perinatal Quality Collaboratives to view a list of state-based PQCs.

CDC is currently providing support for state-based PQCs in Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Funding supports the capabilities of PQCs to improve the quality of perinatal care in their states, including efforts to:

• Reduce preterm births.
• Reduce severe pregnancy complications associated with high blood pressure and hemorrhage.
• Improve identification of and care for infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome.
• Reduce racial/ethnic and geographic disparities.
• Reduce cesarean births among low-risk pregnant women.

CDC and the March of Dimes launched the National Network of Perinatal Quality Collaboratives  (NNPQC) to support state-based PQCs in making measureable improvements in statewide health care and health outcomes for mothers and babies. In 2017, CDC awarded the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) to serve as the coordinating center for the NNPQC. NICHQ will coordinate NNPQC activities, including providing support, mentoring, and resources for PQCs. Learn more about the NNPQC.

Developing and Sustaining Perinatal Quality Collaboratives – A Resource Guide for States [PDF – 566KB]

CDC recognizes the value that PQCs can bring to improving health for mothers and babies and worked with experts to develop a resource guide to help develop and advance the work of state PQCs. Topics in the guide include starting a statewide collaborative, launching initiatives, data and measurement, sustainability, and more. This guide is an online resource that includes links to other useful resources for perinatal quality improvement work.

The success stories below detail the perinatal quality improvement work supported by CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health.

• The Perinatal-Neonatal Quality Improvement Network of Massachusetts (PNQIN) Success Story shares PNQIN’s actions, results, and insights related to improving breast milk use in neonatal intensive care units.
• The Illinois Perinatal Quality Collaborative (ILPQC) Success Story [PDF – 171KB] shares ILPQC’s activities, achievements, and insights related to improving the accuracy of birth certificate data, an important source of information about the health of mothers and babies
• The Ohio Perinatal Quality Collaborative (OPQC) Success Story [PDF – 187KB] discusses OPQC’s steps, accomplishments, and lessons learned in improving birth registry data, prematurity outcomes, and the number of babies born full-term.
• The New York State Perinatal Quality Collaborative (NYSPQC) Success Story [PDF – 815KB] outlines NYSPQC’s steps, strategies, and lessons learned in reducing scheduled cesarean sections (C-sections) and labor inductions without a medical need before 39 weeks of pregnancy.
• The California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC) Success Story [PDF – 622 KB] discusses CMQCC’s partnerships, accomplishments, and lessons learned in building a data center, which helped hospitals to reduce severe pregnancy complications.

In partnership with CDC-funded collaboratives, CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health hosts webinars that allow PQCs to share strategies related to their development as well as specific perinatal quality improvement initiatives. These webinars are available to participants in all states. To receive updates about future webinars, sign up for e-mail updates by entering your information in the box on this page entitled, “Get e-mail updates“. Recordings of previous webinars are archived and available for viewing.

You may receive free continuing education for watching the CDC – Perinatal Quality Collaboratives Webinars. All continuing education is issued online through the CDC/ATSDR Training & Continuing Education Online system.

Public Health Grand Rounds

CDC’s Public Health Grand Rounds is a monthly webcast created to foster discussion on major public health issues. The November 2015 session, Public Health Strategies to Prevent Preterm Birth, discusses how collaborative efforts to improve surveillance data, better medical care and prevention, and stronger public health partnerships, can accelerate progress in reducing preterm births and improving outcomes for newborns. View the archived presentation and Beyond the Data video.

CDC Expert Commentary on Medscape: Reducing the C-section Rate

Dr. Wanda Barfield, MD, MPH, Director of CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health, highlights the CDC PQC project in this video about the need to keep the rate of cesarean section going in the right direction. View video.

• State-based Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI) Prevention Activities
  Learn about states’ progress in reducing HAIs and CDC tools and technical assistance to support state efforts to prevent HAIs
• Sign in to the National Network of Perinatal Quality Collaboratives Online Community
  The goal of this online community is to provide opportunities for the sharing of best practices and lessons learned in developing value based collaboratives, and above all, to create a national learning network that will support the needs of individual state collaboratives going forward.