Measuring Birth Trauma Rates in Maine Using Public Data

Author

Mike Lapika, University of Southern MaineFollow

Date

Spring 2019

Document Type

Poster Session

Department

Mathematics and Statistics

Advisor

Catherine McGuire B.S.

Second Advisor

Deborah Thayer M.B.A, B.S.

Keywords

standard quality measures, data, Maine, birth outcome quality, birth trauma

Abstract

An increasing number of states are creating databases that collect and organize health insurance claims from public and private health care payers. Since December 2016, at least 18 states have these “all-payer claims databases” (APCDs), including Maine. APCDs are intended to inform cost containment and quality improvement by increasing transparency and informing consumer choice. For this project, we assessed how Maine’s APCD data might be used to produce standardized quality measures across facilities in the state. Specifically, we tested a birth outcome quality measure developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Birth Trauma – Injury to Neonate (PSI17). This measure identifies the proportion of all births within a facility that experienced a defined birth trauma. These cases include facial nerve injury, spinal cord injury, and a hemorrhage below the scalp. These birth injuries can cause serious impairment to the infant’s body and may even cause neonatal death.
AHRQ provides the statistical analysis software (AHRQ Toolkit) to use in the calculation of this measure using uniform hospital discharge data (UHDDS) collected by all states and submitted to a national database. We tested how this coding could be adapted to Maine’s APCD data and compared results with rates calculated using Maine’s UHDDS.
This presentation will present some of the challenges identified in producing a birth trauma measure with APCD data and present results from the analyses for calendar years 2014 and 2016 data.

Start Date

4-19-2019 10:30 AM

Recommended Citation

Lapika, Mike, "Measuring Birth Trauma Rates in Maine Using Public Data" (2019). Thinking Matters Symposium Archive. 177.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/thinking_matters/177