Use of Maternal Early Warning Trigger Tool Reduces Maternal Morbidity

( Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2016;214:527.e1–527.e6) Over the past 20 years, maternal mortality has increased unabated in the United States along with a simultaneous increase in severe maternal morbidity. Many national and state organizations have provided recommendations regarding the use of maternal early warning tools to solve this problem. However, there are limited data that support the use of these types of clinical assessment tools to reduce maternal morbidity. The objective of this study were to determine whether maternal morbidity could be reduced with the implementation of a clinical pathway-specific Maternal Early Warning Trigger (MEWT) tool. This tool was developed internally and prospectively implemented as a pilot project in 6 of 29 hospitals within a large hospital system.