At the Quality Institute, we’ve had a productive summer, particularly around our work on equitable access to reproductive health care. Today I want to preview what’s ahead for us on this critical topic.

Reproductive health care is an essential aspect of a functioning health care system. Access to contraception, abortion, and overall quality maternal child health care are fundamental to people’s lives.

Over the past few years, New Jersey has accelerated policy changes that have increased access to these essential services. For instance, pharmacies in New Jersey are now authorized to dispense self-administered birth control.

Despite the positive changes, gaps remain and more must be done. That’s why our policy and quality improvement work around reproductive health care continues. Here’s a preview of what’s ahead:

• In September, we will publish and distribute Reproductive Health Access in New Jersey: A Community Guide. We created the toolkit to educate community organizations, advocates, providers, patients, and the public about the complex systems and policies around contraception. The goal is to support reproductive justice, person-centered care, and reduce barriers to contraceptive choice. This new community guide follows the 2020 release of our New Jersey Reproductive Health Access Project: Provider Access Commitment Toolkit. That first toolkit focused on educating providers and was updated in 2024 to reflect changes to insurance coverage in the state. Together, these two resources will go a long way to improve access to contraceptive health care. We will share the latest guide soon along with learning sessions and virtual office hours.

• Later in the fall, we will announce the latest data around the implementation of TeamBirth at New Jersey hospitals and birthing centers. Preliminary data has been positive and show that pregnant people who participate in TeamBirth feel more involved in decision-making, more informed about their care, and more likely to feel their choices were respected. TeamBirth promotes shared decision-making and uses simple tools to reliably communicate information across the full care team, including the person giving birth. The approach moves away from the traditional medical hierarchy in health care settings. Critically, TeamBirth data in New Jersey show reduced gaps between racial and ethnic groups. The data we will report in a few weeks come from surveys of more than 1300 birthing people, a robust number that will give us valuable insight. We also will announce that four more hospitals are participating in TeamBirth, bringing the number of TeamBrith hospitals and birthing centers in New Jersey to 13.

• Finally, our Maternity Action Plan (MAP) in-person conference on September 20 will convene those working on birth equity and improving maternal child health in New Jersey. We have speakers from seven state agencies and authorities, in depth workshops on using data, role playing on shared decision making, a legislative roundtable, and lunch table talks with community-based organizations providing social services and support programs to advance maternal health. There’s been a great deal of interest in the MAP and the conference is fully booked. Our virtual MAP work sessions will restart in late 2024 and we look forward to seeing many of you join us.

We will keep you posted on these topics and many others as we move forward with our work together.