Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #107484

Helen Hannigan¹, Judy Donlen, RN, DNSc, JD¹, Diane Abatemarco, PhD, MSW², and Cathy Schoffstall, BS³. (1) Director of MIS and Administration, Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative, 2500 McClellan Ave, Ste 250, Pennsauken, NJ 08109, 856-665-6000 X226, hhannigan@snjpc.org, (2) UMDNJ-School of Public Health, 683 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway, NJ 08854, (3) MIS, Database Coordinator, 2500 McClellan Avenue, Suite 250, Pennsauken, NJ 08109

The Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative (SNJPC) is a regional maternal and child health consortium that serves the 16 maternity hospitals in South Jersey, assisting them with health planning, data analysis, QA, and regulatory compliance. This is accomplished through analysis of quarterly Electronic Birth Registry (EBC) data to ensure that complete and accurate records are collected on all deliveries in South Jersey hospitals. Hospital data have been analyzed and reported in de-identified aggregate form annually since 1984. In an effort to describe variables most important to neonatal outcomes, SNJPC has developed a program that filters the hospital data quarterly; this dataset is called Achieve. Key variables have been chosen to monitor including birthweight thresholds at community hospitals, fetal and neonatal deaths and maternal and neonatal transports within the region and to Philadelphia, PA hospitals.

In addition to the use of these datasets SNJPC has also worked closely with the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services to develop statewide benchmarks for hospitals to monitor their demographic, perinatal risk and birth outcome trends.

The Achieve program analysis provides categorical descriptions of births by weight, gestational age, location of birth (in or out of hospital), and outcomes. The presentation will highlight trends in data collected for 10 years describing regional birth outcomes. Among the findings highlighted will be the impact of increased fertility treatments, changing trends in delivery methods, and improved availability of tertiary care within the region. Special focus will be placed on the relation between transport data and birth outcomes and the implications concerning perinatal management. Benchmarks will be presented to illustrate how data such as those describe in the presentation can be used by public health community agencies and hospitals to improve patient management and the quality of care.

The presentation of 10 years of data will demonstrate how improvements in technology, medical management, regional education and QA activities have contributed to increased survival rates for very low birthweight babies.

Learning Objectives:

1.Participants will be able to identify stratigies for annual trend analysis of hospital data regarding Maternal and Neonatal care. 2.Participants will be able to evaluate data based on benchmarks
• Participants will be able to identify the impact of improved Maternal and Fetal Medicine Technologies on birth outcomes.

Keywords: Hospitals, Birth Outcomes

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation