The Oregon Maternal Data Center (OMDC) is a dynamic, Web-based tool launched in 2015 that helps hospitals calculate, report and improve performance, in a way that is low-burden and low cost. Participating hospitals submit patient discharge data—that they already collect—along with a limited set of clinical data to the OMDC’s secure website, which automatically generates a wide range of perinatal performance metrics and patient-level drill-down information. The OPC, March of Dimes of Greater Oregon, and Comagine Health are primary sponsors of the OMDC.
Currently, 75% of all births in Oregon are captured in the OMDC with each member hospital using their data to improve individual performance on the available metrics. The OPC is currently exploring opportunities for utilizing OMDC data to improve outcomes on a statewide basis based on member hospital interest.
Background
In 2013, the OPC created a subcommittee to develop a plan for shared data and aggregation on maternity care in Oregon — an Oregon Maternal Data Center. The Data Subcommittee identified an outstanding data system that has been researched, tested and is in use by hospitals in California and Washington—the California Maternal Data Center (CMDC). The CMDC was developed by Dr. Elliott Main and colleagues at the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC) and is housed at Stanford University. The CMDC combines hospital patient discharge data with a limited set of birth certificate data elements to generate rapid‐cycle (e.g., monthly) performance metrics and statistics. The CMDC is purposely designed to facilitate quality improvement activities in a way that is low burden, low cost and high value for participants. Hospital users in California have reported significant improvements in care and data quality by using the rapid‐cycle information available from the CMDC.