ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To compare the percentage of operative vaginal delivery (OVD) among all publicly funded maternity hospitals in Ireland and to develop quality control performance tables to facilitate national benchmarking. METHODS: The analysis included deliveries of neonates weighing 500 g or more in publicly funded hospitals in Ireland in 2010. Information was obtained from the Irish National Perinatal Reporting System. Maternities delivering in 1 private hospital or at home, and those with unknown parity were excluded. Mean ± SD OVD rates were calculated per hospital. Quality control tables were devised. RESULTS: In 2010, there were 75600 deliveries, of which 73029 met the inclusion criteria. The number of deliveries per hospital ranged from 1284 to 9759. The OVD rate per hospital was 15.3 ± 2.6% (range, 11.7-20.4%). The OVD rate was 29.1% among primigravidas (n = 30 468) compared with 6.7% among multigravidas (n = 42 561) (P < 0.001). Using quality control tables, 52.6% (n = 10) and 31.6% (n = 6) of hospitals were more than 1 SD outside the national mean for forceps and ventouse delivery, respectively. CONCLUSION: Wide variations were found in both the range of OVD and instrument choice among maternity hospitals in Ireland, raising questions about practice and training in contemporary obstetrics.
