AHA, Epic collaborate toward improving maternal health outcomes 

The AHA July 24 announced it is collaborating with health care technology leader Epic to help hospitals adopt tools that support the early detection and treatment of postpartum hemorrhage, a leading cause of maternal mortality. 

The organizations have released a toolkit that includes dynamic risk assessments, clinical decision support and treatment guidance embedded in the electronic health record. With the proper permissions from applicable content providers, users of any EHR should be able to implement a similar set of tools. 

“The American Hospital Association and Epic share a deep commitment to improving health outcomes for moms and babies,” said Chris DeRienzo, M.D., AHA chief physician executive and a neonatologist. “This new collaboration amplifies our efforts to drive continuous improvement by sharing evidence-based resources to help reduce this tragic condition. It’s a natural extension of AHA’s Patient Safety Initiative, a collaborative data-driven effort to highlight and learn from patient safety progress at hospitals and health systems around the country.” 

The AHA and Epic will support hospitals in their implementation journey with programming, resources and a space to learn from each other and engage with hospitals already seeing successful outcomes with items that are included in the toolkit.