This notice announces the opportunity to apply for funding under the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) Capacity program. The AIM program is the national, cross-sector commitment designed to lead in the identification, development, implementation, and dissemination of maternal (patient) safety bundles for the promotion of safe care for every U.S. birth and assist with addressing the complex problem of high maternal mortality and SMM rates within the United States. The mission of AIM is to support best practices that make birth safer, improve the quality of maternal health care and outcomes, and save lives. Maternal safety bundles address topics commonly associated with health complications or risks related to prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum care.
The AIM Capacity program is a new funding initiative designed to support state capacity to implement AIM and expand the reach, depth, and quality of AIM throughout the United States.1 These efforts are designed to meet the intent of the legislation which is “identifying, developing, or disseminating best practices to improve maternal health care quality and outcomes, improve maternal and infant health, and eliminate preventable maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity”. To date, only seed funding has been provided to implement and support AIM at the state level. HRSA is increasing the resources available to states to provide greater support for increasing the number of states, hospitals, and other birthing facility settings implementing patient safety bundles; for increasing the number of bundles being implemented and/or sustained by birthing facilities; for supporting the fidelity of bundle delivery; and for promoting effective data collection and reporting.
The AIM Capacity program will be one of two components of the AIM Program. The second component will be a cooperative agreement with HRSA for the HRSA-23-084 AIM Technical Assistance (TA) Center, which will provide TA to all 50 states, the District of Columbia (D.C.), jurisdictions, U.S. territories, tribal communities, and birthing facilities who are participating in the AIM program. The TA Center will also build data capacity for participating entities to track progress on bundle implementation and support improvement of data collection and reporting to measure program impact more effectively.
For more details, see Program Requirements and Expectations.
Program Goal:
The overarching goal of this initiative is to improve maternal health and safety in the United States by increasing access to safe, reliable, quality care.
Program Objectives:
The objectives to be accomplished during the period of performance to support AIM program’s goal include:
By August 31, 2027, the AIM Capacity program will:
• Increase the number of hospitals and other birthing facility settings implementing patient safety bundles; and,
• Increase the overall number of core bundles being implemented and/or sustained.
• Award recipients will support widespread implementation of the core patient safety bundles that include elements focused on the provision of respectful, equitable, and supportive care among birthing facilities within their respective state.
• Participating AIM states will collect data on disparities by race and ethnicity for at least one patient safety bundle.
