Better Birth Outcomes
Better Birth Outcomes focuses its research on reducing health disparities in women with a history of at least one prior pre-term birth. They're also hard at work exploring the reduction of short and long-term costs of pre-term births. To date, over 215 women have enrolled in the study, and over 600 interview and educational opportunities have been realized.

The BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Health Foundation has contributed $2.5M to Better Birth Outcomes. Collectively, our goal is to reduce pre-term births and improve the health of children and their mothers.

The Blues Project
Infant mortality has been an ongoing crisis in Tennessee. On average, the infant death rate per 1,000 births is 8.69 in Tennessee compared to 6.86 nationally. That's where the Blues Project comes in.

The Blues Project provides expectant mothers aged 13 and older with prenatal, post-partum education and follow-up, as well as pediatric care up to the child's second birthday. Since its inception, the Blues Project has served over 1,000 women and has seen a total of nearly 630 deliveries, along with a 9% reduction in preterm births, an 8.2% reduction in low birth weight and less than 1% in infant deaths.

The Blues Project has also helped to decrease sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse during pregnancy and the length of hospital stays.

The Tennessee Health Foundation has provided the Blues Project with $4.1M in funding.

Solutions to Obstetrics in Rural Counties (STORC)
It's a myth that storks deliver babies. But it's no myth that the STORC project delivers much needed prenatal care to expectant mothers in rural parts of Tennessee.

By connecting patients to high-risk obstetrical specialists, the STORC project seeks to reduce unnecessary patient transportation and hospitalizations, as well as the length of stay in neonatal intensive care units.

The results have been impressive. Since February 2009, 147 patients have been served through the STORC program. Due to early intervention, the project has allowed approximately 80% of births to safely remain in their local hospitals. And while normal statistics would expect approximately 30% of these high-risk pregnancies to result in babies born prior to 34 weeks in gestational age, the project boasts 0% of births prior to 34 weeks and an average gestational age of 37.8 weeks at birth.

Currently the STORC program connects the rural Tennessee areas of Cookeville, McMinnville, Winchester, Newport and Tullahoma to the obstetric hubs in Chattanooga
and Knoxville. Two more sites are planned for 2010 and 2011.

The Tennessee Health Foundation is proud to have partnered with the Community Health Network, Inc. and the Regional Obstetrical Constants to launch the STORC telemedicine project in 2008.

To date, the Tennessee Health Foundation has contributed $1.8M to the
STORC program.