Update on Prenatal Laboratory Screening: Joint Commission Required Elements

Abstract

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend routine screening for pregnant women for evidence of infection with human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B and syphilis, and vaginal-rectal colonization with group B Streptococcus. For each of these pathogens, there are important opportunities to provide maternal treatment, prevent vertical transmission of the pathogen during the prenatal or intrapartum periods, and/or administer neonatal treatment immediately after birth. Such prevention and/or treatment measures are critical to limiting maternal and neonatal morbidity; however, this is dependent on recognition of maternal disease status. A significant number of women in the United States receive either inadequate prenatal care or inadequate screening for these pathogens. The time of admission to labor and delivery units represents an important opportunity to detect at-risk pregnant women and infants. To optimize both maternal and neonatal health, the Joint Commission issued new guidance effective July 1, 2018, mandating documentation of maternal disease status for these pathogens in the maternal medical record and documentation of positive results in the newborn medical record. Immediate peripartum testing for women with inadequate screening is also required. These measures should allow for timely interventions to improve maternal health and ideally to prevent perinatal disease transmission to the newborn.