Obstetric Hemorrhage Education in the United States Survey of Current Efforts and Policy Options.

Objective: To characterize efforts to improve obstetric hemorrhage education by state health departments and to evaluate them for guiding public policy.

Study design: A survey with questions about maternal mortality/hemorrhage assessments and hemorrhage education for health professionals was emailed to public health officials in all 50 states. Follow-up phone calls and emails were sent over 5 months to maximize participation. A nationwide initiative for educating health professionals in treating chest pain was also examined.

Results: Responses were received from 34 states; 31 had legislative or regulatory requirements for identification and/or investigation of maternal deaths. Obstetric hemorrhage education among states is voluntary with the exception of Illinois, which had a regulatory require- ment. In contrast, a nationwide voluntary accreditation program for chest pain had over 1,000 accredited centers in the 10 years or so since being established.

Conclusion: Only a few states had. voluntary efforts in place for obstetric hemorrhage education. A sin- gle state, Illinois, has a. mandatory education require- ment. A voluntary niodel of accreditation based on the example of Chest Pain Centers might serve as a faster way to provide education to large numbers of health pro- fessionals.