To describe temporal patterns in racial and ethnic differences in failure to rescue linked with severe maternal morbidity. This was cohort research that used administrative data to do retrospective analysis. Non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, other, and missing were the race and ethnicity categories. The result was a failure to save a woman suffering from severe maternal morbidity. The failure-to-rescue rate ratio, which was adjusted for patient and facility factors, was used to analyze disparities. 73,934,559 delivery hospitalizations were recorded over the research period, including 993,864 with severe maternal morbidity. 4,328 women died as a result of severe maternal morbidity. The adjusted failure-to-rescue rate ratio for Black women was 1.79, for women of other races and ethnicity it was 1.39, for women with missing race and ethnicity data it was 1.43, and for Hispanic women, it was 1.08. The severe maternal morbidity rate climbed dramatically in each of the five racial and ethnic groups over the research period but began to decline in 2012. Meanwhile, the failure-to-rescue rate reduced dramatically during the course of the trial.
Despite progress, failure to rescue women suffering from severe maternal morbidity remains a substantial contributor to excess maternal mortality in women of color.
