Data Collection 🤰

This section provides tips on data collection and evaluation for jail-based MOUD (also referred to as MAT) services for pregnant patients. It includes the importance of collecting data and best-step approaches.

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Key Points

HOW 

  • Use (and adapt) the MOMCARE Monthly Patient Log: Pregnancy & OUD Data Collection Tool
  • Determine what data is most useful for your facility to collect and who will be in charge of data collection.
  • Create a system for reporting and monitoring data. This should include who will track the data, what data is tracked, how it will be tracked, when it will be reported, and where it will be stored. Use or adapt the MOMCARE Monthly Patient Log: Pregnancy & OUD Data Collection Tool as needed.
  • If services are delivered through an outside entity (e.g. community opioid treatment provider or prenatal care provider), discuss and implement a plan for data-sharing, most likely through an MOU.
  • Determine how to use and share the data you’ve collected which can include things like reporting it out to facility staff members for praise and improvement purposes, community providers for support and sustainment of services, and others to leverage future funding opportunities.

 

WHY 

  • Collecting data can help inform jails about patient outcomes, services utilized, and potential areas for improvement.
  • Data can facilitate staff buy-in and assist you with getting additional programmatic and funding support from outside sources.

 

KEEP IN MIND 

Jails should consider these questions when developing and implementing data collection processes:

  • Who is best suited to collect and organize these data?
  • Are these data easy to document? Does a method of documentation already exist?
  • How will you collect data if an external provider is used for MOUD or OB care?
  • How will these data inform your goals and values?
  • How can and when should you share these data internally with staff and externally with partners?
  • Getting feedback from patients is important data. Do you have a mechanism for patient feedback? You may want to consider a patient experience survey.

Deeper Dive

HOW 

Action Items

  1. Use (and adapt) the MOMCARE Monthly Patient Log: Pregnancy & OUD Data Collection Tool
  2. Determine what data is most useful for your facility to collect and who will be in charge of data collection.
  3. Create a system for reporting and monitoring data. This should include who will track the data, what data is tracked, how it will be tracked, when it will be reported, and where it will be stored. Use or adapt the MOMCARE Monthly Patient Log: Pregnancy & OUD Data Collection Tool as needed.
  4. If services are delivered through an outside entity (e.g. community opioid treatment provider or prenatal care provider), discuss and implement a plan for data-sharing, most likely through an MOU.
  5. Determine how to use and share the data you’ve collected which can include things like reporting it out to facility staff members for praise and improvement purposes, community providers for support and sustainment of services, and others to leverage future funding opportunities.

 

Jail leaders should set expectations and identify a person responsible for collecting and organizing data. Your jail may already have someone assigned to monitor health care data, like a continuous quality improvement (CQI) point person. Or you may want to designate a staff member directly involved in your MOUD program and/or clinical services to collect this data because their daily duties involve this monitoring. There may be more than one individual collecting data depending on what level of data you decide to collect (i.e. screens for pregnancy & OUD versus reentry linkages to care).

 

If MOUD (and other) services are provided off-site and/or by an external provider, the jail should delineate who is responsible for data collection and determine a plan for data-sharing, most often through a formal agreement (see MOMCARE Memorandum of Understanding).

 

🤰 Here are some key data points that we suggest collecting:

  • # screened for pregnancy, # positive
    • Consider # screened for postpartum status (birth within the last 12 months), # positive
  • # screened for opioid use, # positive
  • # of pregnant/postpartum patients with OUD offered MOUD, # started
  • # of pregnant patients with OUD released while still pregnant
  • # of pregnant patients with OUD whose pregnancies ended in custody
    • Birth, miscarriage, abortion, stillbirth, ectopic pregnancy
    • If birth is in custody or postpartum, consider additional outcomes like breastfeeding/pumping, linking with infant outcomes from the hospital
  • # of pregnant patients with OUD connected directly to MOUD provider upon release
  • # on MOUD pre-incarceration
    • # continued on the same MOUD
    • # continued but switched MOUD
    • # not continued on MOUD

 

There are many other data points you could track, such as # of off-site transports for pregnant patients with OUD, costs of care for this population, and, along with community partners like your local health department or OTPs, longer-term outcomes for the patients and babies. You may also want to track MOUD data by type of medication (methadone or buprenorphine).

 

 

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