As they look for ways to address Arkansas’s maternal health crisis, policymakers should consider expanding the state trauma system to include severe maternal morbidity, ACHI President and CEO Dr. Joe Thompson argues in a column published in the November-December 2024 issue of the Healthcare Journal of Arkansas.
Thompson notes the remarkable success of the trauma system, which established standards for hospitals in the state to be classified as trauma centers, created a statewide trauma communications center, and streamlined the process of getting trauma patients to the right place for the right care as quickly as possible. In 2009, the year the Arkansas General Assembly voted to support a trauma system with proceeds from a tobacco tax increase, an estimated 30% of deaths from injuries in the state were preventable, but by 2015 that percentage had dropped to 18%, and by 2021 it was down to 7%.
Using the infrastructure already in place for the management of trauma care to coordinate care for severe maternal morbidity events, such as sepsis, adult respiratory distress syndrome, and acute renal failure, would require a minimal expense compared to the savings Arkansas would see in both healthcare costs and lives, Thompson writes.
For more information about severe maternal morbidity in Arkansas, see our infographic.
Additional resources related to maternal and infant health in Arkansas are available on our topic page.
