January 23rd is Maternal Health Awareness Day – an important moment to focus on outcomes, access, and respectful care. In maternal care, risk is not limited to physiology. Risk is also created when critical information is delayed, incomplete, or difficult to act on.
The U.S. maternal mortality rate remains high, and disparities are substantial (CDC). The statistics reflect many drivers, including clinical complexity, access, and social factors. They also underscore the need for reliable systems that support coordinated care across settings and across teams.
For ultrasound practices and the clinicians who rely on ultrasound data, this is where this year’s theme “Holding Ground on Maternal Health” becomes practical. Holding ground includes building processes that keep care consistent even when teams are busy, and care spans multiple sites.
In this context, three themes matter together: information gaps, the in-between moments of care, and the relationship between speed and safety.
Information gaps are a real patient safety problem
Information gaps often show up as missed follow-up, unclear responsibility, or reports that do not communicate what the next clinician needs.
The Joint Commission summarizes evidence showing that test results are sometimes not followed up at meaningful rates, with systematic review ranges of 6.8% to 62% for laboratory tests and 1.0% to 35.7% for radiology (Joint Commission Digital Assets). In the same publication, the Joint Commission describes closed-loop communication as essential; meaning results are sent, received, acknowledged, and acted upon without failure.
Maternal care has many decision points where an ultrasound finding influences next steps. These can include follow-up imaging, escalation to maternal-fetal medicine, changes in monitoring frequency, and delivery planning.
When ultrasound reporting is fragmented or inconsistent, the gap is rarely visible in a single moment. Instead, it accumulates across visits and across handoffs. A reporting system cannot solve every cause of missed follow-up, but it can reduce common sources of ambiguity.
Structured reports that clearly present findings, clinical context, and recommended follow-up improve the likelihood that downstream clinicians interpret results consistently. This is part of how practices protect hard-won progress. The goal is reliable understanding, not simply documentation.
The in-between moments of care are where gaps become harm
Many maternal care failures occur during transitions. A patient has an ultrasound at one site, sees a different clinician for prenatal care, and delivers at another facility. Even within a single organization, responsibility shifts between sonographers, interpreting clinicians, referring providers, and care coordinators. These are the in-between moments, and they are vulnerable.
Communication failures are a frequent contributor to harm, and handoffs are a central part of that problem. The Joint Commission reports that an estimated 67% of communication errors relate to handoffs, defined as the time when patient care responsibility transitions from one provider to another. Ultrasound reporting sits directly in that handoff pathway.
When reports are hard to locate, slow to finalize, or inconsistent in structure, the bridge weakens. In practice, the risk can look like delayed follow-up on a finding, duplicate imaging, avoidable phone calls and clarifications, or uncertainty about who owns the next step. Those outcomes are not abstract. They take time away from patient-facing care, and they can delay clinically important decisions.
Holding ground means designing workflows that make the correct next action easier. From the perspective of an ultrasound reporting platform, this often includes:
- Standardized clinical terminology and report structure that reduces interpretive variability
- Clear capture of key maternal and fetal measurements and relevant clinical context
- Reliable distribution and access so the right clinician can act without delay
- Traceability that supports auditing and quality improvement
These capabilities are operational, but their effect is clinical. They keep care coordinated in the moments between visits and between teams.
Speed is safety when time drives decisions
In maternal care, there are many situations where time influences outcomes, both directly and indirectly. A delay in identifying a concerning trend can delay referral. A delay in confirming a normal result can prolong anxiety, lead to avoidable repeat testing, or slow routine planning. A delay in communicating an actionable finding can postpone intervention.
Speed in reporting should not mean rushed or low-quality. It should mean that teams can complete accurate reports efficiently, without unnecessary manual steps, duplicated data entry, or avoidable back-and-forth.
For ultrasound practices, “speed is safety” often comes down to practical workflow design:
- Templates that align with practice standards so key elements are not omitted
- Structured fields that reduce rework and support consistency across providers
- Fewer clicks and fewer hand-transcribed values, reducing error opportunities
- Faster report finalization and distribution, improving time to action
When speed, clarity, and continuity improve together, the system is more resilient. This matters in high-volume environments and in settings where care is distributed across multiple organizations.
A practical way to “hold ground” in maternal health
Maternal health progress depends on clinical excellence and on systems that make excellence repeatable.
AS Software’s focus on simplifying ultrasound reporting is aligned with this kind of progress. Standardized, coordinated, and efficient reporting supports care teams by reducing information gaps and strengthening the in-between moments where responsibility shifts. In a field where timelines are tight and decisions are interconnected; operational reliability is a form of patient safety.
Maternal Health Awareness Day is an opportunity to recommit to respectful, evidence-based care. It is also an opportunity to invest in the infrastructure that makes that care consistent across patients and across settings. Holding ground includes holding the line on communication, follow-up, and timely action.
References
- CDC National Center for Health Statistics, “Maternal Mortality Rates in the United States, 2023.” CDC
- The Joint Commission, Quick Safety Issue 52, “Advancing Safety with Closed-loop Communication of Test Results” (systematic review ranges for lack of follow-up; definition and importance of closed-loop communication; delayed communication risks). Joint Commission Digital Assets
- The Joint Commission Knowledge Library, “Reducing Handoff Communication Failures and Inequities in Healthcare” (estimated 67% of communication errors relate to handoffs). The Joint Commission
