Developing an Interdisciplinary Community Action Team for Reduction in Maternal Mortality Related to Cardiovascular Disease

Background: Pregnancy-associated deaths involving cardiovascular disease (CVD) often occur beyond six weeks postpartum and are associated with delayed recognition. Objectives: We report on a community-informed approach to create an issue-specific community action team (CAT), which selected and tailored an intervention for CVD in pregnancy and postpartum. Methods: City-based maternal mortality review committee data on pregnancy-associated deaths involving CVD was leveraged to build an issue-specific CAT. Results: Maternal mortality review committee data highlighted the high frequency of cardiac-related symptoms as well as hospital-based evaluations among individuals during the year before death. The CAT identified and optimized a quality improvement intervention for CVD screening in pregnancy and postpartum. This process integrated feedback from stakeholders from multiple care settings across the city and created a foundation for rapid citywide dissemination of the revised algorithm and supplementary materials. Conclusions: CATs may be an effective organizational strategy to center community perspectives and build partnerships for intervention development to address pregnancy-associated mortality.