Last week, USA Today released a sobering investigative report, “Hospitals know how to protect mothers. They just aren’t doing it.” Each year, more than 50,000 American women are severely injured giving birth and about 700 mothers die.
The best estimates say that half of these deaths could be prevented and half the injuries reduced or eliminated with better care. And unlike most other developed countries, U.S. maternal mortality rates continue to rise.
Many of our clients who are building women’s health service lines pursue growth strategies around building state-of-the-art delivery rooms, recruiting and retaining OB/GYNs, and building longitudinal care models that cross stages of a woman’s life. Certainly, all of these strategies have potential impact.
But the recent report challenges the idea that “quality is assumed” – or that if we did assume, we were wrong. The public’s attention has been raised about the catastrophic failure to implement proven maternal care protocols. Marketers and strategists have a role in making sure their providers are adhering to the highest standards of obstetrical and gynecologic care… and being sure their community knows they are as well.