A Collaborative Maternity and Newborn Dashboard for the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a range of unprecedented changes to the way healthcare is delivered in all Australian public hospitals. In maternity hospitals across Victoria, these changes have resulted in an altered schedule of visits for antenatal care.

The aim of this study is to monitor monthly trends in key perinatal services performance indicators and maternal and newborn outcomes at the largest VIC maternity health services before, during and after the COVID19 pandemic.

This is a multi-centre retrospective cohort study that will gather routinely collected data on births from January 1 2018 to December 31 2024. The first half of the study period (from Jan 1 2018 to commencement of study following HREC and local governance approvals in mid-2020) will be retrospectively collected in order to provide baseline rates of all outcomes. Data will then be prospectively collected each calendar month from each of the participating sites, and this will be continuously updated to provide timely reports on maternity services. These seven health services, including 12 hospitals, collectively look after 100% of all public births in metropolitan Melbourne.

The participating health services are: • Mercy Health (Mercy Hospital for Women, Werribee Mercy Hospital) • The Royal Women’s Hospital, The Women’s at Sandringham • Monash Health (Monash Medical Centre, Casey Hospital, Dandenong Hospital) • Northern Health (The Northern Hospital) • Western Health (Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital) • Eastern Health (Box Hill Hospital and The Angliss Hospital) • Peninsula Health (Frankston Hospital)

The approximate number of births captured during the study period is approximately 300,000. An estimated 44,000 women give birth in the participating hospitals each year.