The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is beta testing a new set of quality indicators to track maternal morbidity trends.
To address the U.S. maternal health crisis, which disproportionately affects Black women, Native women and women in rural communities, the agency launched software to analyze area-level rates of severe maternal morbidity, the AHRQ said in an Oct. 30 blog post.
The Maternal Health Indicators resource was released in September for use in population health surveillance and research purposes. It is not intended for accountability purposes, the AHRQ said.
The measurement tool includes 20 severe maternal morbidity indicators, such as eclampsia, severe anesthesia complications, sepsis and hysterectomy. Based on feedback, the AHRQ said the tool may eventually add measures for post-discharge outcomes, mental health and substance abuse.