West Virginia Perinatal Partnership

Central Advisory Council Subcommittee on a Universal Prenatal Risk-Screening Tool

Chair
--Pat Moore Moss, MSW, LCSW, Director, Office of Maternal, Child and Family Health Committee

Members
--Allan Chamberlain, M.D.
--Ted Cheatham, Director, PEIA
--Dan Christy, MPA, Director, Health Statistics Center
--Jeannie Clark, RN, Director, Right From the Start
--Liz Cohen, M.S.W., WVU Department of OB/Gyn
--Brenda Dawley, MD, ACOG Chair, Elect/Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
--Pam Jones, Blue Cross Blue Shield
--Beverly Kitchen, RN, CAMC, Right From the Start
--Tom Light, Programmer, Health Statistics Center
--Patty Perdue, Partners in Community Outreach
--Mark Polak, MD, Neonatologist, WVU Children’s Hospital
--Robert Pulliam, MD, Access Health
--Stephanie Shabandy, RN, Insurance Commission Committee

Staff
--Ann Dacey, Nurse Coordinator, WV Perinatal Partnership

Volunteer to serve on this Committee

Risk Assessment

Comprehensive risk assessment enables the prenatal care provider to determine whether the woman or the fetus is at increased risk and provides the basis for further assessment and intervention. Risk factors are characteristics that indicate a higher probability of adverse outcome and help guide the action by the woman, social supports, and the medical provider.

One of the recommendations arising out of the Blueprint to Improve West Virginia Perinatal Health in 2006 was to identify a maternal risk scoring instrument to be used universally by all obstetrical medical providers and all payers.  A fuller description of the challenge and recommendations for meeting it are contained in the Reports on the Blueprint to Improve Perinatal Health in West Virginia (2008).  The Partnership is working to achieve those recommendations.