Improving maternal health takes more than identifying gaps. The effort requires listening to patients, partnering with communities, and turning what we learn into meaningful change.

That’s the goal of Raising the Bar for Maternal Health in New Jersey, an initiative helping hospitals improve maternal health outcomes and provide respectful, patient-centered care. Now in our third year of this work, we are partnering with AtlantiCare and Inspira Health. We are also releasing two new resources to help more hospitals take similar steps to strengthen maternal health care.

The need is clear. Maternal deaths and serious pregnancy-related complications remain pressing concerns in NJ, and significant racial disparities exist with non-Hispanic Black women about 7.6 times as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than non-Hispanic white women. Raising the Bar gives hospitals a structured way to understand the care they provide and work with their communities to make it better.

Turning Community Input into Action

Our Raising the Bar initiative began as a pilot with Capital Health and Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which continues to fund the work.

A central part of the initiative is the creation of Perinatal Community Advisory Boards known as PCABs, which bring patients, support people, doulas, community leaders, and hospital staff together to identify and shape opportunities for improvement. The pilot demonstrated what these partnerships can accomplish. At one hospital, PCAB feedback helped create a mental health fellowship to provide direct support and referrals, expand doula engagement, and shape the need for a dedicated maternity care social worker budget. At the other, PCAB members helped develop a maternity care and hospital tour video, supported strategies for information sharing and recovery during the perinatal period, and increased hospital engagement in community initiatives.

New Resources for Hospitals

Building on lessons from the pilot, the Quality Institute is releasing two resources to help other hospitals take similar steps:

• Maternal Health Benchmarking Survey and Guide: The survey is a comprehensive assessment of a hospital’s maternal health service line, including inpatient and outpatient services, care transitions, and community partnerships. Developed with Ariadne Labs, the goal is to help hospitals see clearly where they are strong, where there are gaps, and where they can improve. The survey and step-by-step guide are a starting point for conversation and action, not a judgment of performance.
• PCAB Toolkit: The toolkit supports hospitals in building a PCAB in their own community. The toolkit walks teams through assessing readiness, recruiting members, setting up governance, running meetings, and measuring impact. PCABs help ensure that care is designed not just for patients and communities, but with them.

The two tools are designed to complement one another. The benchmarking survey shows a hospital where its gaps are. A PCAB helps the hospital understand those gaps from the patient’s perspective and shape solutions that work for the community it serves.

Scaling Raising the Bar

Earlier this year, AtlantiCare and Inspira Health completed the Maternal Health Benchmarking Survey. This fall, both health systems will begin establishing their PCABs to bring community voices into shaping solutions. Our broader goal is to support the scaling of Raising the Bar to more hospitals across New Jersey, helping improve maternal health outcomes and experiences through stronger partnerships between hospitals and the communities they serve.

Ready to raise the bar? Any hospital or health system can use these tools to begin this work now. Explore the new resources or contact me at aperez@njhcqi.org to get involved.

Stay Connected

We’ll be sharing what we learn as we go. The Quality Institute’s work on maternal health extends beyond Raising the Bar. The map below shows our programs and partners across the state.