Greenville Health System
Dr. Amy Crockett, a maternal-fetal medicine physician with Greenville Health System, was named the winner of the prestigious John P. McNulty Prize for her leadership in reducing preterm births in South Carolina.
The award, which comes with a $100,000 prize, helps to further these efforts.
South Carolina has one of the highest rates of preterm birth in the United States.
More than 11 percent of women in the state deliver preterm (before 37 weeks gestational age), and nearly 15 percent of African-American women give birth early.
The South Carolina CenteringPregnancy Expansion Project, led by Crockett, seeks to decrease rates of preterm birth and to decrease the racial disparity in preterm birth by improving access to CenteringPregnancy group prenatal care.
Since 2012, the project has provided training and start-up funding which has allowed 18 obstetric practices around the South Carolina to begin offering CenteringPregnancy group prenatal care. To date, more than 3,200 women have been able to participate in CenteringPregnancy groups because of the project, and the results are impressive.
The rate of preterm birth for women in CenteringPregnancy is 8 percent, which represents a 34 percent reduction.
“Babies that are born too soon or too small can suffer life-long consequences, not only in terms of chronic health conditions like asthma and cerebral palsy, but also learning and behavioral problems that can cause problems in school,” said Crockett.
Expansion Project is funded by the South Carolina Chapter of the March of Dimes and the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
South Carolina is the first to develop a coordinated statewide network with the model. The following practices are included in the statewide expansion:
- AnMed Health Family Medicine, Anderson
- Blue Ridge Women’s Care in Seneca
- Carolina OB/Gyn, Georgetown and Murrell’s Inlet
- Carolina OB/Gyn in Spartanburg
- Carolina Women’s Center, Clinton
- Coastal Carolina Ob/Gyn, Conway
- Greenville Health System OB/Gyn Center, Greenville
- Lexington Women’s Health, Lexington
- McLeod OB/Gyn Associates in Dillon
- McLeod Women’s Care, Clarendon
- Medical University of South Carolina Women’s Health
- Montgomery Center for Family Medicine, Greenwood
- Mountain View Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pickens
- North Central Family Medicine Center, Rock Hill
- Palmetto Health Women’s Center in Columbia
- Parkridge OB/Gyn in Columbia
- Sumter OB/Gyn, Sumter
- University of South Carolina Women’s Specialty Clinics, Columbia