West Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health cut its maternal sepsis mortality rate from 3.2% to 0% after embedding pregnancy-specific detection criteria into its Epic EHR.
“That’s four moms who were able to go home with their babies who would not have otherwise been able to,” said Kristin Ray, BSN, RN, UnityPoint’s director of clinical effectiveness, in a June 17 Epic news release.
The 35-hospital system, which handles more than 20,000 deliveries a year, treated 133 pregnant and postpartum patients over the program’s first 19 months.
UnityPoint had already saved an estimated 190 adult lives using Epic’s predictive sepsis model, live since May 2023, according to the case study originally published in April. Because that model was not validated for pregnancy, the system applied California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative criteria — covering 20 weeks’ gestation through three days postpartum — and routed those patients into a single adapted advisory and order set.
Order set compliance rose from 68% to 86%, and patients received antibiotics within an hour 66% of the time, up from 55%. Clinician training and patient education accompanied the rollout.
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