Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women recognized as a 2022 Bernard J. Tyson National Award for Excellence in Pursuit of Healthcare Equity recipient by The Joint Commission, Kaiser Permanente

HOUSTON, TX (November 8, 2022) – Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women has been recognized with a 2022 Bernard J. Tyson National Award for Excellence in Pursuit of Healthcare Equity for its Quality Improvement Initiatives on Decreasing Racial Disparities in Maternal Morbidity. The award recognizes healthcare organizations and their partners that led initiatives to achieve a measurable, sustained reduction in one or more healthcare disparities.

In March 2019, Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women began stratifying data by race and ethnicity and determined that non-Hispanic Black women had the highest rates of severe maternal morbidity from hemorrhage (SMM-H). A gap analysis identified interventions to reduce morbidity from hemorrhage for all pregnant patients, including hemorrhage risk assessment, drills, active management of the third stage of labor, and a multidisciplinary review of serious hemorrhages to identify systematic issues. A health equity lens was applied to these efforts and Black/African American race was added as a medium risk factor for hemorrhage to help address implicit bias and accelerate healthcare team response.

Prior to implementation of these strategies, there was a statistically significant difference between Black and White women for SMM-H rates (p<0.001). This disparity was no longer significant post-intervention (p=0.138), and the rate of SMM-H in Black women decreased significantly from 45.5% to 31.6% (p=0.011).

The Tyson Award panel noted strengths within this initiative, including how it combined multiple interventions and components, making structural clinical changes as well as educational changes that directly addressed implicit bias. The team used robust stratified data throughout to identify the problem and target the interventions appropriately, and provided excellent documentation of the process and improvement. This initiative was directly linked to important maternal health outcomes, and because it was specifically focused on maternal morbidity related to hemorrhage, the interventions employed are replicable across most hospitals offering labor and delivery services, and the panel believed the interventions could be adopted widely across the US.

For these reasons, Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women was selected as a co-awardee for the 2022 Bernard J. Tyson National Award for Excellence in Pursuit of Healthcare Equity.

“We are so honored to be the recipient of the 2022 Bernard J. Tyson National Award for Excellence in Pursuit of Healthcare Equity,” said Mark A. Wallace, President and CEO of Texas Children's Hospital.  “Texas Children’s is known for its commitment to running toward a problem and finding innovative and effective solutions. That’s exactly what our team at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women did when they focused their attention on decreasing racial disparities in maternal morbidity. It is a true privilege to receive this prestigious award from the Joint Commission and Kaiser Permanente, organizations that also have committed to addressing and correcting these inequities.”

Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women will be recognized in a virtual award presentation on November 29 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. CT. Please register here to attend.

“The Joint Commission is inspired by Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women’s efforts that have resulted in more equitable care for their patients. We hope other healthcare organizations will move toward equity using their Quality Improvement Initiatives on Decreasing Racial Disparities in Maternal Morbidity as an example of excellence,” said Ana Pujols McKee, MD, FACP, executive vice president, chief medical officer, and chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer, The Joint Commission.

“We applaud this year’s Tyson awardees, NYC Health + Hospitals and Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, for their important work to advance our shared goal to reduce – and eventually eliminate – inequities in care,” said Andrew B. Bindman, MD, executive vice president and chief medical officer for Kaiser Permanente. “We hope that this award, named in Bernard Tyson’s honor, will continue his legacy and inspire others to undertake meaningful, measurable efforts to address inequities based on race, ethnicity, immigration status and other social factors.”

Bernard J. Tyson, the late chairman and chief executive officer of Kaiser Permanente, worked tirelessly to address the healthcare disparities that plague the U.S. healthcare system. The Bernard J. Tyson National Award for Excellence in Pursuit of Healthcare Equity honors his memory by recognizing extraordinary efforts made by healthcare organizations, with the goal of inspiring other healthcare organizations to take action to improve healthcare disparities.

For more information on the Tyson Award, please visit the Tyson Award webpage.

NYC Health + Hospitals was also named a recipient of the 2022 Tyson Award. For more information on the award, please visit the Tyson Award webpage.