Newswise — Dr. Margo Hilliard, MPH, senior vice president, Community Services, Harris County Hospital District, received the 2012 Kathryn S. Stream Award for Excellence in Women’s Health by the Texas Medical Center Women’s Health Network.
The Texas Medical Center Women’s Health Network is an organization of health professionals dedicated to advancing women’s health through collaborations in education, research and advocacy. The organization, located in Houston, Texas, is part of the world’s largest grouping of healthcare institutions, hospitals, research facilities and medical schools.
Each year, the Stream Award recognizes a Houston-area researcher, educator, practitioner or community leader who demonstrates outstanding achievement in the area of women’s health. Hilliard received her award May 17.
“It’s a pleasure for me to accept this award, both personally and on behalf of the thousands of healthcare professionals who do more than I could ever do to improve the health of women in Harris County,” Hilliard says.
A significant reason for her winning the award was her spearheading of Impacting Maternal and Prenatal Care Together (IMPACT), a collaborative of 339 individuals and 79 member organizations from greater Harris County/Houston to unite community resources, raise public awareness, place the spotlight on quality care measures and support legislative advocacy.
Faced with the troubling fact that Harris County, the third most-populous county in the United States, has a rate of mothers dying from childbirth and pregnancy-related complications far greater than less-industrialized countries, Hilliard mobilized the community to address the issue.
“This is a tragedy that we as a community cannot accept. Given Harris County’s abundance of healthcare resources, mothers and babies should not be dying at such alarmingly high rates. The time for action is now,” she says.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the death rate for Harris County mothers increased from 14.8 per 100,000 live births to 22.8 per 100,000 live births from 2001-2009. Based on a 2008 report by the World Health Organization, 49 countries showed a better rate of maternal mortality than Harris County.
In 2011, the collaborative introduced legislation in the Texas State Legislature to form a Maternal Mortality Morbidity Review Board for Texas. The review board is a way to direct resources and funding to the issue. Although it did not pass, plans are to resubmit the proposal again in 2013 during the next biennial Texas legislative session.
Hilliard has been with the Harris County Hospital District for nearly 40 years. She’s a board-certified pediatrician and has been hospital administrator for the system’s Jefferson Davis Hospital and Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital.
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