Investigating racial and ethnic disparities in maternal care at the system level using patient safety incident reports.
In the United States, women and birthing people of color experience disproportionately high rates of mortality and severe maternal morbidity (SMM). Researchers analyzed two years of incident reports (IR) to ascertain potential system issues contributing to SMM and racial/ethnic disparities at one hospital. Non-Hispanic Black individuals were over-represented in IRs, but there were no statistically significant differences in harm level.