Government Accountability Office (GAO) Reports on Maternal Health: Outcomes Worsened and Disparities Persisted During the Pandemic

November 02, 2022 by Sarah Johanek, MPH in POLICY

A government report released in October confirms that during COVID, maternal health worsened, racial disparities grew, and rates of maternal mental health disorders rose.

Maternal deaths increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the pandemic was a contributing factor in 25% of all maternal deaths in 2020-2021, as found in the recent report published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). GAO conducted this research because the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) includes a provision for GAO to report on its pandemic oversight efforts.

What Joy is Reading this July

July 26, 2020 by Joy Burkhard, MBA in What We Are Reading

This month the following articles and research caught my eye, including:

A headline that the USPSTF has created a plan for PCPs to screen for social determinants of health;
How COVID is impacting mental health, compounded by increases in families reporting food insecurity and loss of health insurance and child care. Domestic violence is suspected to be on the rise too (we don’t have good data sadly to track this consistently in the U.S.) and new research is out on DV screening rates.
New research showing that though mental health apps are being developed at extremely fast rates, they are not being utilized widely.
Obstetric care and Adverse Childhood Experiences - a jarring personal overview of why this really matters

What We’re Reading

May 13, 2020 by Joy Burkhard, MBA in What We Are Reading

What I’m reading this month not surprisingly focuses on how the pandemic is affecting mood and also what we might be able to do about it. Interestingly, the Federal Agency AHRQ is also now more aggressively recommending a standardized depression screening/measurement approach to allow for more compatibility and quality improvement efforts. As a health systems quality improvement practitioner, I also believe this is critical and controversial.