The City Council advanced multiple resolutions this week addressing maternal health data gaps, with four related measures in progress that urge the state to create separate maternal death reporting codes, share state health data with the city's mortality review board, and audit hospital safety reporting.
The Council held six oversight hearings spanning stormwater resiliency, emergency response worker conditions, veteran services, maternal health, employment programs for people with disabilities, and housing tax incentives.
The maternal health push reflects ongoing Council focus on mortality tracking and hospital data accuracy following decades of underreporting issues in the city's emergency response system.
Council hears resolution to share state maternal health data with NYC mortality review board
The City Council held a hearing this week on a resolution calling for the state to share hospital safety data on maternal health incidents with NYC's Maternal Mortality Review Committee. The committee laid the resolution over (delayed action). The resolution aims to give the city's maternal mortality team access to state-reported adverse events so they can better identify risks, track health disparities, and make recommendations to reduce pregnancy-related deaths—which disproportionately affect Black women in NYC.
Actions this week
Committee hears resolution calling for better maternal health data tracking in NYC hospitals
A committee hearing was held this week on a resolution urging NYC Health and Hospitals to report maternal health complications to the state's adverse event tracking system using a standardized definition that includes problems up to 30 days after birth. The resolution responds to rising severe maternal morbidity rates in NYC—doubling from 83.8 to 153.8 cases per 10,000 births between 2016 and 2022—by calling for better data collection to inform policy decisions.
Actions this week
Council urges state to create separate maternal death reporting code to fix data gaps
The Committee on Women and Gender Equity held a hearing this week on a resolution calling on New York State to create a separate reporting code for maternal deaths and standardize how hospitals track these deaths. Currently, maternal mortality is buried within a larger reporting category, and hospitals use conflicting definitions—some counting deaths up to one year after pregnancy ends, others only within 42 days—causing significant gaps in data collection and making it harder to prevent maternal deaths.
Actions this week
Stormwater Resiliency in a Changing Climate.
Working Conditions Within New York City’s Emergency Response System.
Supporting New York City’s Older Veterans.
Improving Maternal Health in New York City.
NYC: ATWORK Employment Program for New Yorkers with Disabilities.
Housing Tax Incentives.
Council urges state to audit hospital safety data after decades of NYC underreporting
A committee hearing was held this week on a resolution calling on the New York State Department of Health to regularly review hospital adverse-event data and require hospitals to fill in missing reports. The resolution highlights that NYC hospitals significantly underreport patient safety incidents compared to hospitals upstate, making it difficult to assess hospital quality and safety.
Actions this week