RI COMSS

About RI COMSS

Rhode Island Community-based Maternal Support Services Bundle (RI COMSS) is a grant funded perinatal equity program at Women and Infants Hospital (WIH). It is just one of the programs that is part of WIH’s growing health equity portfolio. This 5-year project aims to develop and implement a participatory model for integrating community-based maternal support services (COMSS) into perinatal systems of care. Considering that over 80% of deliveries happen at WIH, the hospital serves as a critical touchpoint for those seeking perinatal healthcare.The purpose of this project is to improve perinatal health outcomes in RI by bringing together WIH, Community Health Workers (CHWs) and doulas, and community-based organizations in a deeply participatory process to build a service delivery model that addresses care coordination and social drivers of health (SDOH) as a part of a concerted effort towards achieving equitable perinatal health outcomes.

What are Social Drivers of Health?

Healthy People 2030 defines social drivers of health as the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. Social drivers account for 50% of a person’s health. RI COMSS aims to reduce maternal morbidity by addressing health disparities and the social needs of pregnant people. By addressing SDOH such as housing, food, and transportation - the program will be able to show how beneficial CHWs are in health care teams. Emphasizing CHWs as an integral piece of the collaborative care model allows this program to go beyond the walls of the doctor’s office and interact with patients in their own communities for resource navigation.One unique part of this program is the utilization of referral platform, Docs for Health. Within this platform are built-in applications that allow CHWs to streamline referral to various State and community-based organizations, with the intent to reduce physical and linguistic barriers for RI+’s diverse pregnant population.