Enhancing Maternal and Neonatal Health with Care Assessment Tools

Risk-appropriate care is crucial for optimizing the health outcomes of pregnant women and newborns. This approach ensures that mothers and infants with complex medical needs receive specialized care in facilities equipped with the necessary expertise and technology. Conditions such as severe heart problems in mothers or premature births before 32 weeks require a level of care that only specialized centers can provide. However, the definition and implementation of these levels of care can vary significantly across different regions, creating inconsistencies in healthcare delivery. To address this challenge, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed the CDC Levels of Care Assessment Tool (LOCATe), a vital resource for standardizing and improving maternal and neonatal care assessments.

Introducing the CDC LOCATe: A Standardized Care Assessment Tool

The CDC LOCATe is designed to help states and other jurisdictions establish consistent and standardized assessments of maternal and neonatal care levels within healthcare facilities. This care assessment tool is grounded in the most current guidelines and policy recommendations from leading medical organizations, including:

American Academy of Pediatrics
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine

By utilizing these established standards, CDC LOCATe ensures that assessments are both rigorous and reflective of the best practices in maternal and neonatal healthcare.

How CDC LOCATe Works: Process and Data Utilization

The implementation of CDC LOCATe involves a structured process facilitated by state champions, typically agencies or organizations already connected with local hospitals. This process is broken down into key steps to ensure effective data collection and utilization:

Building Collaborative Participation

The first step involves fostering support and participation among healthcare facilities. State champions play a crucial role in:

Identifying and engaging collaborators to promote the use of the CDC LOCATe tool.
Developing strong relationships with facilities to encourage statewide participation in the assessment process.

Data Collection Using the Care Assessment Tool

Once support is established, the next phase is data collection, which is streamlined through:

Distribution of the CDC LOCATe web link to all relevant facilities within the state.
Proactive follow-up with facilities that have not yet responded to ensure comprehensive data collection.

Data Analysis and Results Sharing

The collected data is then analyzed to provide actionable insights:

The state submits the collected data to the CDC for expert analysis.
CDC conducts a thorough assessment of maternal and neonatal care levels based on the data.
The analyzed results are then provided back to the state, empowering them to use and disseminate the findings as needed to drive improvements in care.

Leveraging CDC LOCATe Data for Enhanced Healthcare Strategies

The standardized assessments produced by CDC LOCATe offer significant benefits to participating states. By using this care assessment tool, states gain valuable insights into:

The specific levels of maternal and neonatal care available at each facility.
The distribution of healthcare staff and services across the state.

This data, when combined with other public health information, allows states to analyze the correlation between levels of care, service volume, and patient health outcomes. This comprehensive understanding enables data-driven decisions aimed at optimizing healthcare delivery and resource allocation.

Who Benefits from Using CDC LOCATe?

CDC LOCATe is primarily intended for public health decision-makers and serves as a catalyst for informed discussions among various stakeholders involved in risk-appropriate care, such as:

State and local public health departments that oversee healthcare standards and public health initiatives.
State Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs) focused on improving perinatal care quality and outcomes.
Hospital associations that represent and support healthcare facilities in their efforts to enhance care.
Healthcare providers in maternal and neonatal care who are directly involved in delivering and improving patient care.

The results generated by CDC LOCATe act as a foundation for constructive dialogues on strategies to elevate health outcomes for both women and infants, ensuring that care assessment tools are effectively utilized to their full potential.

Access CDC LOCATe for Free

The CDC LOCATeSM and CDC Levels of Care Assessment ToolSM are service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and are available for free use. For those interested in participating or seeking further information about CDC LOCATe, inquiries can be directed to drhinfo@cdc.gov.