The PA Perinatal Quality Collaborative (PA PQC) has awarded UPMC Hamot the $15,000 PA AIM Innovation Award to develop solutions for maternal hypertension. This is part of the PA PQC's AIM Severe Hypertension and Disparities initiative to improve severe hypertension treatment and reduce racial/ethnic disparities in pregnancy.

As an action arm of the PA Maternal Mortality Review Committee, the PA PQC is coordinating the rollout of the PA Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) initiative, which launched in September 2020. The PA PQC recruited 19 PA PQC birth hospitals to participate in the PA AIM initiative and implement the PA AIM Planning Task Force's PA AIM Bundle, which supports sites in providing effective, equitable, anti-racist, and respectful care.

With the PA AIM Innovation Award funding, UPMC Hamot will work with UPMC Magee to develop a data dashboard to reduce the time to severe hypertension treatment by race/ethnicity. UPMC Hamot will implement strategies to improve this measure, with an overall goal of reducing the rate of severe maternal morbidity among those with eclampsia/preeclampsia by 25% and reducing the racial/ethnic disparities for that measure by 25% by August 2022.

AIM is a national data-driven maternal safety and quality improvement initiative that is managed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and funded by the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA).