For Hospitals, Health Centers, and Health Plans

The SACRED Birth Study officially ended January 31, 2021. 

The Psychometric Validation of the Patient Reported Experience Measure of OBstetric racism©, also known as the PREM-OB Scale™ Suite, was completed in April 2021. 

The manuscript was accepted for publication on January 28, 2022 and will be made widely available on the internet to anyone with the URL without licensing and copyright restrictions via Open Access.  

Dr. Karen A. Scott, MD, MPH, FACOG, the owner and developer of the PREM-OB Scale™ Suite, is now living in Nashville, TN, (her birthplace) and leading her own Black woman-led quality improvement and implementation science, practice, and research firm called Birthing Cultural Rigor™, LLC. 

To learn more about her new journey, work, reach, and impact, click here.


What is the value of the PREM-OB Scale™ to hospitals, health centers, and health plans?

Dr. Karen A. Scott, MD, MPH, FACOG is the sole developer and owner of the Patient Reported Experience Measure of OBstetric racism©, also known as the PREM-OB Scale™, which she designed in 2019 prior to accepting a faculty position at UCSF in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences. In less than one year during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Scott and her team completed participant recruitment, enrollment, survey completion, and data collection by January 31, 2021 for the purposes of validating the PREM-OB Scale™.  The soon to be validated PREM-OB Scale provides a numerical score of how well hospital clinicians and staff promote and/or violate high(er) quality of care in safety, autonomy, communication, racism, empathy, and dignity in service provision as defined for, by, and with Black mothers and birthing people and Black women scholars.

Hospitals, health centers, and health plans who register as SACRED Birth Partners gain access to complementary training and technical assistance for clinicians and staff in order to increase patient and public awareness and involvement with the SACRED Birth Study.  Please note that the SACRED Birth survey validation study ended January 31, 2021.

What are the benefits of registering as a SACRED Birth partner?

  • Increased visibility as an organization committed to advancing Black-centered racial justice & perinatal equity in hospital-based birth services, support, and care
  • Access to data from the PREM-OB Scale™ and Quality Improvement Prioritization by Affected Communities (QPAC).
  • Improved communication and capacity building in understanding, describing, measuring, and modifying how obstetric racism is experienced by Black mothers and birthing people during hospital-based birth services, support, and care
  • Improved recognition, reporting, and responsiveness to the needs, priorities, and concerns of Black mothers and birthing communities.
  • Increased comfort, confidence, and enthusiasm to utilize the PREM-OB Scale™ as a standard hospital QI metric or key performance indicator (KPI).
  • Increased utilization of a validated short form and long form PREM-OB Scale™ for use in monitoring and evaluation to benchmark effective clinical practice techniques, policies, procedures, and processes in diagnosing and dismantling obstetric racism.
  • Increased utilization of the PREM-OB Scale as a validated systems-level measure to connect provider reimbursement to the value of care during hospital births and use payment to drive systems change,  meaning providers get paid based on their patient's birth experience AND outcome.
  • Improved strategies for transforming the culture of hospital births and provision of clinical and social services, supports, and care for Black mothers and birthing communities 
  • Increased transparency  in patient-clinician,  patient-system, and community-system interactions, communication, counseling, and shared decision-making 
  • Improved clinical outcomes over time
  • Increased birth workforce development and diversification

Which hospitals, health centers, and healthplans are currently registered as SACRED Birth Partners?

Hospitals

Alameda Health System Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Family Birthing Center, Oakland, California 

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Inc, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Boston, Massachusetts

Black Mothers Matter Committee, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at New York University Langone Health, New York, New York

Boston Medical Center/Boston University School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Boston, Massachusetts

Eastern Virginia Medical School, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Norfolk, Virginia

Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Boston, Massachusetts

Merit Health Central, Jackson, Mississippi

Temple University School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Temple University School of Medicine, Department of MedicinePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania

Temple University School of Medicine, Center for Urban Bioethics, Program for Maternal Health EquityPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania

The University of Chicago, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Midwifery Group, Chicago, Illinois

Torrance Memorial Medical Center, Maternity and Child Health, Torrance, California 

UC Davis Health, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Sacramento, California

University of California San Francisco Birth Center, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, San Francisco, California

UNC Health, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Townson, Maryland

University of Mississippi Medical Center, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Jackson, Mississippi

Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, St Louis, Missouri

Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Family Birth Center, San Francisco, California 

Health Centers

CHOICES Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, Memphis, Tennessee 

Health Plans

Health Net 

San Francisco Health Plan

How do hospitals, health centers, and health plans learn more about supporting the study as a partner? Please note the SACRED Birth survey validation study ended January 31, 2021.

Click here for a list of frequently asked questions specific to supporting the study as a hospital partner.  

Do hospitals, health centers, or health plans need to submit an IRB application to UCSF to be a study partner?

UCSF IRB does NOT require hospitals, health centers, or health plans to submit a separate IRB application in order to refer or recruit patients as a study partner.  UCSF IRB has given permission for you to refer a patient and send their contact information as long as they have agreed to you sending their contact information to us. ​As a hospital partner, you are NOT engaged in research activities based on federal definition of “engaged” in human subjects research. Also, a hospital partner is NOT considered an agent of the SACRED Birth study. Thus, UCSF IRB does NOT require IRB approval from any site unless the site meets the federal definition of “engaged” human subjects research. For a list of what is considered engaged vs not engaged activities, go to https://irb.ucsf.edu/working-other-institutions.  For more information, please click here to review our FAQs document for hospital partners, question #4 covers this topic.

How do hospitals, health centers, and health plans refer patients to the study?

The SACRED Birth study ended January 31, 2021.

If you would like, you may document in the medical record that the patient has given permission to share their information.  We have attached a template formto use for this purpose.

How do interested hospitals, health centers, and health plans register as a SACRED Birth partner?

The SACRED Birth survey validation study ended January 31, 2021.

Step 1. Submit a Letter of Support

 Click here to download the template letter of support which provides some content that you can use, modify, AND customize to demonstrate your interest, capacity, and commitment in collaborating with the SACRED Birth study as a hospital, health center, or health plan partner. Please also determine the number of births by Black mothers and birthing people that you are interested in recruiting and enrolling in the study. You must email the completed, customized, and signed letter of support on your institution's letterhead to our study.

Step 2.  Share study information and refer patients. 

Once the study team confirms receipt of your completed, customized, and signed letter of support on your institution's letterhead, you are encouraged to start referring eligible participants who gave birth to a live newborn in a hospital in 2020. To support patient education and referral activities, we have designed two different flyers, orange flyer or blue flyerwith similar information about study focus, eligibility, expectation, and payment. A QR code is also located on each flyer for folks with smartphones to direcrly access the onsite referral links.

We also designed a telephone script and sample recruitment letter to support your efforts in increasing patient and community awareness and participation in the study. 

Visit our Public Visibility and Involvement webpage to view our first SACRED Birth Virtual Town Hall Meeting, held on December 9, 2020, and to learn more about the study through recordings of other presentations and articles about our study, our team, our partners, and our sponsonrs.

We launched this study during a pandemic. Thus, 100% of all recruitment, screening, consent, and enrollment activities including interviews and communications occur online via emails, Zoom, social media platforms, and our study website. 

Participants will receive a $100 electronic gift card via email within 7-10 business days of completing the survey.

The SACRED Birth Study officially ended January 31, 2021. The Psychometric Validation of the Patient Reported Experience Measure of OBstetric racism©, also known as the PREM-OB Scale™ Suite, was completed in April 2021. The manuscript was accepted for publication on January 28, 2022 and will be made widely available on the internet to anyone with the URL without licensing and copyright restrictions via Open Access.  

Dr. Karen A. Scott, MD, MPH, FACOG, the owner and developer of the PREM-OB Scale™ Suite, is now living in Nashville, TN, (her birthplace) and leading her own Black woman-led quality improvement and implementation science, practice, and research firm called Birthing Cultural Rigor™, LLC. To learn more about her new journey, work, reach, and impact, click HERE.

Step 3. Schedule an introductory meeting with the study PI

The SACRED Birth Study ended January 31, 2021.

During the meeting, we ask hospital, health center, or health plan partners to be prepared to share the birth data stratified by race, prioritizing the outcomes and experiences of Black mothers and birthing data. We also will share the process for sharing data based on UCSF material transfer and data agreements.  

We want to remind our partners that the validation part of the SACRED Birth study is now live online. Our goal is to have 1000 eligible Black mothers and birthing people complete the PREM-OB Scale by 12/31/2020, no later than 2/28/2021 (the end date for the validation study). Specifically, we have funds to support the following eligible candidates who enroll and complete the survey in the following locations: 400 in California, 100 in Memphis, TN, and 500 in other areas across the U.S. 

We look forward to receiving your letter of support and discussing your strengths, gaps, and opportunities for growth as we learn more about the experiences of your Black birthing communities in hospital settings.

What are the next steps for Implementation, Spread, and Scale-Up?

The SACRED Birth Study officially ended January 31, 2021. 

The Psychometric Validation of the Patient Reported Experience Measure of OBstetric racism©, also known as the PREM-OB Scale™ Suite, was completed in April 2021. The manuscript was accepted for publication on January 28, 2022 and will be made widely available on the internet to anyone with the URL without licensing and copyright restrictions via Open Access.  

Dr. Karen A. Scott, MD, MPH, FACOG, the sole owner and developer of the PREM-OB Scale™ Suite, is now living in Nashville, TN, (her birthplace) and leading her own Black woman-led quality improvement and implementation science, practice, and research firm called Birthing Cultural Rigor™, LLC. 

To learn more about her new journey, work, reach, and impact, click here.