Baptist Health joined 29 health care organizations from around the state in a kick-off meeting Monday on a new quality initiative aimed at reducing early elective deliveries. Sponsored by the Florida Hospital Association’s Hospital Engagement Network (HEN), the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative, the University of South Florida and the March of Dimes, the meeting introduced ways hospitals can curb non-medically indicated elective deliveries prior to 39 weeks gestation as part of their quality improvement and patient safety efforts.

The meeting featured presentations on the new FHA-HEN initiative, an overview of elective deliveries and their impact on pre-term births in Florida, and educational resources for doctors and patients produced by the March of Dimes. Information was also presented on the “Think 39 Weeks” social marketing campaign. A panel of hospital representatives from a pilot project, coordinated by the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative, offered their perspectives on implementing a “hard stop” to discourage non-medically indicated inductions. Each of the hospitals in attendance received a facility-specific fact sheet that included data on elective deliveries gleaned from birth certificates. Hospitals were encouraged to join the FHA-HEN and Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative to obtain technical assistance and data tracking portals in support of their quality improvement efforts. The goal of the FHA-HEN initiative is to reduce early electives deliveries to 3% or less by the end of 2013.

Participants included representatives from Baptist Health, Baptist South, Baptist Medical Center-Nassau and Baptist-Beaches.