Steve Borders, assistant professor of public and nonprofit administration, is working with the Michigan Department of Community Health to research state hospitals and their capabilities of treating women with high-risk pregnancies and delivering at-risk babies.
The data Borders collects will support a larger state initiative to update the system of referrals and transfers from one hospital to another, he said.
"Hospitals are designated level one, which is least complex, to level three, the most complex," Borders said. "Right now, there's a breakdown in the referral system and that could be contributing to an increase in mortality rates."
Michigan's infant mortality rate is higher than the national average. In 2002, Grand Rapids had 11.1 infant deaths per 1,000 live births; the national average for the same period was 9.5. Borders and a MDCH researcher are collecting data from 99 Michigan hospitals that have the capability of delivering babies. The project, which Borders expects to be completed next year, is funded with a grant from Medicaid.
He had worked at the Texas Department of Health and State Medicaid Office and as a research assistant at the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M before joining Grand Valley's faculty.
