271250 Impact of consumer demand for maternity care data on healthcare policy

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Jill Arnold , CesareanRates.com, San Diego, CA
The open flow of information on the internet has increased the public's expectation of transparency in healthcare-related data. Many healthcare organizations and government entities, including Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, have implemented public reporting. However, public reporting of hospital-level data for maternity services is absent, outdated or limited in most states and accessibility of these data favor those with financial, educational and linguistic privilege. The speaker will discuss how engaging maternity care consumers and the lay public affects data reporting policies at the national and local level. In addition, the speaker will explain how publicizing rates of procedure utilization, specifically the cesarean section, creates an impetus for change and accountability in public reporting at the hospital level.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Communication and informatics
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
1. Identify educational, economic and sociolinguistic barriers to accessing maternity care data (using the cesarean section statistics as an example). 2. Describe how demonstrating a measurable public interest in data transparency can be used to affect health policy in the area of public data reporting. 3. Discuss how access to information in conjunction with health education benefits underserved populations.

Keywords: Women's Health, Maternal Well-Being

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an independent public health researcher working to obtain hospital-level cesarean rates for each of the 50 states. I edit cesareanrates.com where this information is published.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.