$3 million grant to target maternal, infant health

A $3 million grant aimed at improving prenatal and maternity services in the Missouri Bootheel has been awarded to Saint Francis Healthcare System by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Saint Francis is collaborating with SoutheastHEALTH and more than a dozen other health care and social support organizations in a joint effort to improve maternal and infant health in six Southeast Missouri counties — Scott, Stoddard, Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid and Pemiscot — through a program to be known as the Bootheel Perinatal Network Project.

The award, announced Monday by Saint Francis, is part of the Rural Maternity Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS) grant program totaling nearly $9 million, which is being administered by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration.

The Bootheel Perinatal Network Project grant is one of only three grants awarded through the RMOMS program. The other funding recipients are the Bexar County Hospital District in San Antonio and Taos Health Systems Inc. in Taos, New Mexico.

Saint Francis and the two other grant recipients will receive up to $600,000 each in a planning year and up to $800,000 in three implementation years to pilot, test and develop models improving access to and continuity of maternal obstetrics care in rural communities.

“We are excited about this opportunity to help more mothers have positive outcomes in a high-risk area of our service region,” Debbie Sprandel stated in a news release from Saint Francis. Sprandel is vice president of ambulatory nursing at Saint Francis.

“This funding will allow us to work with all providers in our area to create a new model of service delivery,” she said. The Bootheel Perinatal Network Project will support health care providers, hospitals, public health and social support agencies to work together with communities to build on local resources and meet the health care needs of women and newborns.

“This is the first time I’m aware of that all partners have signed on to working together to improve maternal and child outcomes in this area,” Sheila Beussink, director of patient care services at SoutheastHEALTH, said. “Anything we can do to decrease the high infant and maternal mortality rates we are seeing in the Bootheel is an initiative we should all want to be involved in.”

Missouri has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation. While the national average number of deaths in 2016 was about 19.9 per 100,000 live births, Missouri’s maternal mortality rate was 28.5, ranking it 42nd among the 50 states.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Missouri ranked 33rd in the nation in 2018 with an average of 6.5 children out of every 1,000 live births dying before their first birthday. The national average is 5.9. New Hampshire and Vermont tied for the lowest infant mortality rate last year with an average of 3.9 deaths per every 1,000 live births, while Mississippi ranked 50th with an average of 8.9 out of every 1,000 babies dying before their first birthday.

In rural areas of Missouri, the maternal and infant mortality rates are higher than the state average.

“The causes of higher than average maternal mortality and morbidity in Southeast Missouri are multifactorial,” Karlyle Christian Ritter, a Saint Francis neonatologist and one of the medical directors of the Bootheel Perinatal Network Project, explained. “Having organizations tackle this issue from different vantage points, collaborating under one halo, will impact the region in a powerful way.”

Besides Saint Francis and Southeast, other area organizations and agencies involved in the Bootheel project include Missouri Delta Medical Center, Pemiscot Memorial Health Systems, Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center, SSM Health-St. Mary’s Hospital, SEMO Health Network, Bootheel Counseling Services, FCC Behavioral Health, Gibson Recovery Center, Bootheel Babies and Families, Building Block/Nurse Family Partnership, Missouri Bootheel Regional Consortium/Bootheel Healthy Start and the Bootheel Network for Health Improvement, representing county health departments in Dunklin, New Madrid, Mississippi, Pemiscot, Scott and Stoddard counties.

In addition to the $3 million grant through the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Program, an additional $252,972 will be provided through nongovernment sources, according to the Saint Francis news release.

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