To reduce infant mortality, collaboration is key

• Hospitals, doctors and community organizations are working together to reduce infant mortality.
• Licking Memorial Hospital has been collaborating with other hospitals around the state..
• The hospital is also partnering with Heartbeats of Licking County to promote smoking cessation.

NEWARK – Infant mortality isn’t a problem one agency can solve.

Hospitals across the state are working on new policies and procedures to improve the health of Ohio babies, said Karen Hughes, program adviser for the Ohio Perinatal Quality Collaborative.

But doctors can only do so much on the clinical side. When babies go home from the hospital, it’s up to parents and the support systems they rely on to keep them safe and healthy.

“There has to be an overarching approach,” Hughes said. “There are a large number of social determinants, like poverty and housing and drug use, that are affecting outcomes.”

Ohio’s infant mortality rate has been the focus of state and local agencies for the past few years.

In 2012, the state’s infant mortality rate was 7.56 per 1,000 live births, meaning 1,045 babies died before their first birthday, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

That same year, Licking County’s infant mortality rate was 10.75 per 1,000 births, meaning 21 Licking County babies died before they turned 1.

Both are higher than the national rate of 6.05 per 1,000 births

State and local agencies have to work together to change that, said Liz McCullough, executive director of the pregnancy resource center, Heartbeats of Licking County.

“The good news is there is a lot we can do about this as a community,” she said. “We can figure out what we can do and how we can bridge any gaps.”

Support on the state level

Licking Memorial Hospital has taken a variety of steps to improve the health of mothers and babies. But reducing infant mortality takes more than just one hospital, said Heather Burkhart, assistant vice president, inpatient services.

In 2012, the hospital joined the Ohio Perinatal Quality Collaborative. The organization is a group of physicians, government agencies and other medical professionals across the state dedicated to improving clinical practices.

Their goal is to reduce preterm births and improve the health of newborns, Burkhart said.

“That’s everybody’s goal,” she said. “The biggest part of this is bringing all these hospitals together for information sharing.”

The collaborative hosts regular phone calls and meetings to focus on various projects. One example of a successful initiative was the collaborative’s effort to reduce scheduled deliveries before 39 weeks, Hughes said.

Many doctors had gotten comfortable scheduling inductions or cesarean sections before the end of a pregnancy, but research showed that delivering a baby before 39 weeks, when it wasn’t medically necessary, increased the risk of infant mortality, Hughes said.

The collaborative was able to educate doctors, who brought the message home to their hospitals.

“The number of scheduled deliveries before 39 weeks was reduced significantly without an increased number of stillbirths,” Hughes said. “We changed practices and improved outcomes.”

The collaborative also is working to create standardized procedures for reducing catheter infections for newborns and treating neonatal abstinence syndrome, which occurs when babies are exposed to drugs in the womb.

Licking Memorial has been able to share some of the best practices it has developed in caring for infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome, Burkhart said.

“I think anytime you are part of a collaborative, it gives us a leg up,” she said. “We are able to provide our expertise in what we are seeing.”

Community collaboration

Changes are happening at hospitals across Ohio that are benefiting babies. But more organizations have to be involved, Burkhart said.

“People usually aren’t coming into the hospital until the day of delivery,” she said. “It really starts with the community.”

The hospital works with the Licking County Health Department and Heartbeats of Licking County to make sure they are distributing a consistent message because each agency can reach a different audience.

The health department can use its partnerships with Pathways of Central Ohio and Head Start programs to provide resources and information to families.

Heartbeats is often the first stop for women who believe they might be pregnant. If the test is positive, the staff provides the woman with information about prenatal care and nutrition as well as options for resources and medical care.

The privately funded organization will be launching a new partnership with Licking Memorial Health Systems next week: The health system will provide Quit for You, Quit for Your Baby counseling services at Heartbeat’s East Main Street location.

Women interested in quitting smoking will be able to go through the free incentive-based program while getting other services at Heartbeats, said Greg Wallis, assistant vice president of outpatient services.

“Women sometimes go to Heartbeats first, and the first trimester is a key part in the development of an infant,” Wallis said. “This is a natural opportunity for us to get to these moms earlier.”

That’s just one way agencies are working together to help the county’s youngest generation, Wallis said.

“It’s bigger than Licking County. It’s bigger than Ohio,” he said. “It’s an initiative that everyone is trying to team up with to see if can try to improve this.”

ajeffries@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8544

Twitter: @amsjeffries

About

this series

This story is the first in an ongoing series of articles looking at Licking County’s infant mortality rate and the people and organizations that are working to decrease it on a state and local level.