The Alaska Perinatal Quality Collaborative (AKPQC) launched in January 2019, the culmination of a year of planning coordinated by the Section of Women’s, Children’s, and Family Health (WCFH) in collaboration with the AKPQC Steering Committee. The launch event drew a multidisciplinary group of 75 participants from around Alaska. Three nationally recognized experts in maternal and neonatal health presented on collaborative quality improvement (QI) methods and successful initiatives. Title V funds supported meeting coordination for the event as well as some personnel costs for WCFH staff who worked on it. Title V TA funds supported travel for one of the out-of-state speakers.

During the event, we facilitated a group discussion and interactive voting activity on perinatal health issues and potential focus areas of the AKPQC. Based on this feedback and a review of Alaska severe maternal morbidity (SMM) data, the AKPQC Steering Committee chose severe maternal hypertension as an initial focus area. To date, seven hospitals representing almost 70% of births in Alaska are enrolling in the initiative. WCFH will continue to coordinate this initiative and will launch a neonatal branch of the AKPQC in Fall 2019. Launching a PQC has been a goal for WCFH for a few years, and it is exciting to see it come to reality. There is a very engaged steering committee that includes multiple hospitals, the State Hospital Association, and Alaska chapters of ACOG, AAP, and AWOHN, among others.