Cohort of Los Angeles Hospitals Mark One Year of Collaboration to Address Birth Inequities Impacting Black Families
Date: 12/11/20
LOS ANGELES, December 11, 2020 — Communities Lifting Communities (CLC), the Public Health Alliance of Southern California (Alliance), and the Hospital Association of Southern California (HASC) celebrated the one-year anniversary of Cherished Futures for Black Moms & Babies, a collaborative effort to reduce Black infant mortality and improve patient experiences and safety for Black mothers and birthing people in Los Angeles County.
The Cherished Futures collaborative launched in January of this year against the national backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and rallying calls for racial justice. Many around the globe awoke to the reality that racism in its many forms, is a public health crisis. Racism undergirds the inequities in nearly every major of health status, including COVID-19 cases and deaths that disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other communities of color.
Research also points to racism and toxic stress as the root cause of disparate birth outcomes for Black women, babies, and birthing people. Guided by the data and grounded in Black women's experiences, Cherished Futures brings together nearly 80 decision makers from Los Angeles birthing hospitals, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, health plans, and Black women community leaders to co-design systems-change solutions at the clinical, institutional, and community levels.
Today's Cherished Futures virtual workshop marked the end of a year-long capacity-building experience designed to prepare hospital teams to address birth inequities. Supported by an initial two-year sponsorship from Health Net, the collaborative explored foundational topics such as racism's impact on health, historical and contemporary policies that have harmed Black families, and other systemic drivers that contribute to inequitable birth outcomes.
"There is always more work to do, but it's important to reflect on this past year's journey in addressing the health of this community of mothers and children. I'm honored to lead this effort at Health Net, and thankful for the all the dedicated and hard work that the collaborative has done," said Dr. Pooja Mittal, Medical Director at Health Net. "Our plans to better birth outcomes and address maternal patient experiences as well as safety will help save the lives of countless women, give children the chance to be raised by a loving mother, and begin to rectify one of the injustices in our community."
"It was important for us to ground this work in the experiences and wisdom of Black women and birthing people, and to elevate how historical policies contributed to the inequities we see today," said Dana Sherrod, the Cherished Futures lead and Perinatal Equity Manager with the Public Health Alliance of Southern California.
The collaborative engaged thought leaders, including Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who gave an opening keynote at the Cherished Futures workshop in July, and discussed her success in passing SB 464, the California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act – legislation that in part mandates implicit bias training among providers caring for pregnant patients.
"I'm grateful for the commitment you've all made to transforming the health care industry, creating a diverse group of professional leaders dedicated to helping my very own community of Los Angeles," Mitchell said on July 24.
"I believe we are truly stronger together," Mitchell continued. "Social justice and health equity are not common themes, unfortunately, in clinical services. But you are all truly paving the way."
As part of the Cherished Futures collaborative, the participating hospital teams discussed and identified systems level strategies to address persistent gaps in birth outcomes for Black women, babies, and birthing families. During today's session, hospital teams presented the strategies that will be implemented to improve birth outcomes and experiences for Black families that are slated to begin next month. Each intervention employs a data-supported approach at three different levels: clinical, institutional and community.
Cherished Futures centers the voices and lived experiences of Black women and birthing people to reduce inequities and inform hospital quality improvement strategies. Each hospital team was supported throughout the year by Black women community advisors as they planned for change.
"It is imperative that we clearly share the impact of racism, violence, assault and daily trauma that impact our mental health and livelihood" said Adjoa Jones, Regional Director—SPA 6, LA County Department of Health Services, Whole Person Care.
Collaborative members say their experience in Cherished Futures was transformative and helped them prepare to implement change. "Cherished Futures helped us know where to start, and that was first looking at the data", said Dr. Deepjot Singh, FACOG, MMM, Physician Co-lead OBGYN at Providence Little Company of Mary.
The Cherished Futures pilot cohort now moves forward in 2021 to implement the individual systems-change strategies. Communities Lifting Communities and the Public Health Alliance of Southern California will continue hosting collaborative convening's, provide technical assistance to the hospitals implementing improvement strategies, and will evaluate the collective success of the Cherished Futures model.
Cherished Futures includes a cohort of five hospitals: Antelope Valley Hospital, Cedars-Sinai, Centinela Hospital Medical Center, Dignity Health — California Hospital Medical Center, and Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center, Torrance.
Learn more about Cherished Futures.
About Communities Lifting Communities
Communities Lifting Communities (CLC) is a regional community health improvement initiative led by the Hospital Association of Southern California (HASC) to reduce health disparities and improve community health in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties.
About the Public Health Alliance of Southern California
The Public Health Alliance of Southern California (Alliance) is a coalition of the executive leadership of 10 local health departments in Southern California. Collectively, Alliance members have statutory responsibility for the health of 60 percent of California's population. The Alliance advances multi-sector policy, systems, and environmental change to improve upstream population health and equity.
About Health Net
Health Net believes that every person deserves a safety net for their health, regardless of age, income, employment status or current state of health. Founded 40 years ago, the insurance provider is dedicated to transforming the health of communities, one person at a time. Today, Health Net's 3,000 employees and 85,000 network providers serve more than three million Californians. Health Net provides health plans for individuals, families, employers, people with Medicare and people with Medi-Cal — coverage for every stage of life. The plan also offers access to behavioral health services, substance abuse prevention programs, managed health care services for prescription drugs and employee assistance programs.