PQC Demonstration Project
IHI, NICHQ, and AdaptX are partnering to support the Iowa and Alabama PQCs to drive improvements in maternal health. Through a 12-month initiative, hospitals will access expert coaching and real-time data tools to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality and address disparities in birth outcomes.
Building Perinatal Quality Collaborative (PQC) Capability for Maternal Health Improvement
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ), and AdaptX are partnering to launch a 12-month maternal health improvement initiative with Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs) in Iowa and Alabama. This effort will support hospitals in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality by focusing on a high-impact clinical area of reducing primary cesarean sections.
Hospitals participating in this initiative will gain free access to a real-time data platform developed by AdaptX. This HIPAA-compliant tool integrates with hospital electronic medical records (EMRs) and enables teams to visualize and analyze data stratified by race and ethnicity—empowering rapid-cycle quality improvement. The data will feed into a centralized dashboard at the PQC level to identify trends, measure progress, and drive collective learning.
Teams will receive coaching from national experts, participate in peer learning forums, and test evidence-based changes aligned with national quality initiatives such as the AIM bundles. Throughout the project, PQCs will also receive training to strengthen their internal quality improvement capacity and infrastructure.
This demonstration project aims to show that with the right tools, training, and collaboration, PQCs and their partner hospitals can make measurable improvements in maternal health outcomes at the state level. If successful, this model could be expanded to additional clinical topics and states, building a stronger, more equitable system of maternal care across the country.
Who
Participants at 16 hospitals and 2 state PQCs.
Our Role
We are supporting the evaluation plan and implementation of a CORAL platform for participating hospitals.
Funder
Merck for Mothers
Project Impact
External Resources
State Perinatal Quality Collaboratives
List of PQCs funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
The Power of PQCs
Video showing the impact that PQCs have on the communities they serve. Produced by the NNPQC.
PQCs in the News
Articles in news outlets covering state PQCs, their activities, and the people that work in the collaboratives.
Patient Safety Bundles
From the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health. PSBs are collections of evidence-informed best practices that address clinically specific conditions in pregnant and postpartum people. The NNPQC helps provide TA and support to PQCs in adopting the core AIM Perinatal Mental Health Bundle.
Perinatal Quality Collaboratives
The CDC’s landing page for PQCs, including helpful infographics, videos, and links to help explain what PQCs are, how they work, and stories, learnings, and publications that have come out of the state PQCs.
