M Health Fairview to remove race as a factor in pregnancy, maternal health screenings
M Health Fairview says it's found a way to help eliminate racial and ethnic bias in pregnancy and delivery care. The health system says it's removing race as a factor for various screenings and tests related to pregnancy. This effort is supported by the Birth Justice Initiative, an internal group at M Health Fairview that works to eliminate racial bias in maternal health care and improving patient outcomes.
Transition to Universal Screening
By July, all pregnant patients at M Health Fairview will be universally screened for various maternal and fetal conditions. That includes diseases that are usually prominent in a certain racial group, like sickle cell disease or spina bifida. Robust screening we find is going to be our answer forward and really identifying the right path for individualized care across our entire health care system at M Health Fairview.
Rationale for Removing Race as a Factor
Melissa Hasler, the director of nurse midwives at M Health Fairview, explains the decision: "Race itself is not a biologic determinant of someone's risk." As the organization discovered, race is a social construct. One large element that was problematic was using race in many of the different screenings and the biochemical markers for testing that were being utilized at M Health Fairview.
When we use race, we under-attribute or over-attribute certain risks to certain people in different socioeconomic and demographic and ethnic categories. It's not enough just to remove the race as a factor; we need to have robust screening universally, along with interventions that actually can impact that maternal health outcome.
Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis
It's helpful to start from the point of the fact that we have such a severe crisis nationally. But particularly in our state, we are seeing pregnant people dying at a higher rate than we are seeing people die from pregnancy and pregnancy related issues globally. Our concerns are around how do we help keep pregnant people healthy during their pregnancy and their postpartum experience and, of course, the birthing experience?
Science as the Basis of Care
We took a focused look on that at M Health Fairview to figure out the importance of looking at science as the basis of the care that we're providing. This involves focusing care on evidence based, high quality research and evidence that shows this is how we care for pregnant people in the best way possible. We know that a lot of the risks during pregnancy and postpartum come from actually socioeconomic risks that really impact the care that the pregnant person receives.
| Strategic Change | Implementation Details |
|---|---|
| Target Timeline | All changes to be implemented by July |
| Screening Protocol | Universal screening for various maternal and fetal conditions |
| Screening Factors | Removal of race as a factor in screenings and biochemical markers |
| Clinical Basis | Evidence-based, high quality research focusing on science |