WOMEN'S HEALTH
THE DEMISE OF THE Kentucky Maternal
Mortality Review Committee
Stanley Gall, MD
T
he Maternal Mortality Review
Committee (MMRC) has been a
partnership between the Kentucky
Medical Association (KMA) and
the Maternal Child Health (MCH)
Division of the State of Kentucky Department
of Public Health (KDPH). This committee was
established in 1975 by Dr. John Greene, Chair
of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of
Kentucky. Members of the committee were recruited by Dr. Greene
through the KMA. Upon Dr. Greene’s retirement in 1996, I became
Chair of the MMRC and continued until July 2018 when funding
for the committee was terminated by MCH, effectively killing the
committee’s activities.
Funding of the committee has been through a yearly grant from
the MCH division. The MCH division did not renew the grant to
the committee for the fiscal year 2018-2019 which effectively shut
down the committee. The grant provided funds for a part-time
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LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
secretary, as well as travel expenses ($70.00/hour) for members to
travel to hospitals to review assigned maternal deaths. MCH was
responsible for sending death certificates of all females 13-50 years
old who died in relation to childbirth in Kentucky to the chair of
the MMRC for review and assignment to members. The reviewers
completed an assigned data form and returned it the committee
secretary. The committee met once each year at the KMA annual
meeting to review all of the cases accumulated during the year and
assign causality if possible. Members of the committee included
obstetricians, gynecologists, pathologists, anesthesiologists, ma-
ternal-fetal medicine subspecialists and consultants from other
specialties as needed.
The committee assigned maternal deaths according to the Amer-
ican College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) definition.
The purpose of the committee was to identify the causes of maternal
death and to inform physicians through publications, meetings and
presentations at Kentucky Section ACOG meetings.
The relationship between the MMRC and the Maternal Child