BOCYF Projects

Maternal and Child Health Under Health Care Reform

Publications: Paying Attention to Children in a Changing Health Care System (1996)

The Board on Children and Families (now the Board on Children, Youth, and Families) and the Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention of the Institute of Medicine held a two-day workshop in July 1994 to explore issues raised for women and children by national health care reform efforts. The issues raised in each day's discussions were summarized in two separate reports, and a steering committee was appointed to oversee the workshop and the resulting reports. Participants included health care and public health professionals, representatives of federal agencies, and congressional staff.

The first day of the workshop focused on issues related to benefits and systems of care for women and children. The summary of the first day's discussion is called Benefits and Systems of Care for Maternal and Child Health Under Health Care Reform: Workshop Highlights.

At the request of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, the second day specifically addressed quality improvement and performance monitoring for children's health care services. The resulting report is called Protecting and Improving Quality of Care for Children Under Health Care Reform: Workshop Highlights.

This activity drew, in part, on a related 1992 report, Including Children and Pregnant Women in Health Care Reform, prepared under the aegis of the National Forum on the Future of Children and Families. The second day's discussion of quality issues linked the activity to the IOM-wide special initiative on quality of health and health care.

In 1996, the workshop summaries from this activity were reprinted as part of a volume entitled Paying Attention to Children in a Changing Health Care System.