Perinatal high reliability.

Perinatal high reliability is achievable with principles of high reliability organizations. Key organizational, leadership, and clinical characteristics that are essential for developing and sustaining a highly reliable perinatal unit are presented. Interdisciplinary collaboration and commitment to safe care that are founded on standardization are the hallmarks of perinatal high reliability.

Michigan Health & Hospital Association Keystone Obstetrics: a statewide collaborative for perinatal patient safety in Michigan.

BACKGROUND: Preventable harm to mothers and infants during labor and birth is a significant patient safety and professional liability issue. A Michigan Health & Hospital Association Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality Obstetric Collaborative Project involved perinatal teams from 15 Michigan hospitals during an 11-month period in 2009. The purpose of the project was to promote safe care practices during labor and birth using the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP). Consistent with the CUSP model, this project's components included assessing and promoting a culture of safety; interdisciplinary team building; case review; learning from defects through multiple methods of education; team and individual coaching and peer encouragement; administrative support for the establishment of a fundamental safety infrastructure; and ongoing evaluation of care processes and outcomes. METHODS: Study measures included 32 components of a perinatal patient infrastructure, 6 care processes during labor and birth, and 4 neonatal outcomes. RESULTS: Significant improvements were found in the safety culture (Safety Attitudes Questionnaire), the perinatal patient safety infrastructure components, and all care processes. CONCLUSIONS: Although the project was successful, getting buy-in from all members of the clinical team in each hospital for all of the measures was challenging at times. There was initial resistance to some of the measures and their various expected aspects of care. For example, some of the clinicians were initially reluctant to adopt the recommended standardized oxytocin protocol. Peer encouragement and unit-based feedback on progress in minimizing early elective births proved useful in many hospitals. A CUSP in obstetrics can be beneficial in improving the care of mothers and infants during labor and birth.

A comprehensive perinatal patient safety program to reduce preventable adverse outcomes and costs of liability claims.

BACKGROUND: To achieve the goal of safe care for mothers and infants during labor and birth, Catholic Healthcare Partners (CHP; Cincinnati) conducted on-site risk assessments at the 16 hospitals with perinatal units in 2004-2005, with follow-up visits in 2006 through 2008. ON-SITE RISK ASSESSMENTS: In addition to assessing overall organizational risk, the assessments provided each hospital a gap analysis demonstrating up-to-date and outdated practices and strategies and resources necessary to make all practices consistent with current evidence and national guidelines and standards. CRITICAL ASPECTS OF CLINICAL CARE: Review of claims and near-miss data indicate that fetal assessment, labor induction, and second-stage labor care comprise the majority of risk of perinatal harm. Therefore, these clinical areas were the focus of strategies to promote safety. To promote consistency in knowledge and practice, in 2004 a variety of strategies were recommended, including interdisciplinary fetal monitoring education and routine medical record reviews to monitor ongoing adherence to appropriate practice and documentation. OUTCOMES: Success in implementing essential structural and process components of the perinatal patient safety program have resulted in improvement from 2003 to 2008 in specific outcomes for the 16 perinatal units surveyed, including reduction of perinatal harm, number of claims, and costs of claims. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: The program continues to evolve with modifications as needed as more evidence becomes available to guide best perinatal practices and new guidelines/standards are published. A patient safety program guided and supported by a health care system can result in safer clinical environments in individual hospitals and in decreased risk of preventable perinatal harm and liability costs.

Oxytocin: new perspectives on an old drug.

Oxytocin is the drug most commonly associated with preventable adverse perinatal outcomes and was recently added by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices to a small list of medications "bearing a heightened risk of harm," which may "require special safeguards to reduce the risk of error." Current recommendations for the administration of this drug are vague with respect to indications, timing, dosage, and monitoring of maternal and fetal effects. A review of available clinical and pharmacologic data suggests that specific, evidence-based guidelines for the intrapartum administration of oxytocin may be derived from available data. If implemented, such practices may reduce the likelihood of patient harm. These suggested guidelines focus on limited elective administration of oxytocin, consideration of strategies that have been shown to decrease the need for indicated oxytocin use, reliance on low-dose oxytocin regimens, adherence to specific semiquantitative definitions of adequate and inadequate labor, and an acceptance that once adequate uterine activity has been achieved, more time rather than more oxytocin is generally preferable. The use of conservative, specific protocols for monitoring the effects of oxytocin on mother and fetus is likely not only to improve outcomes but also reduce conflict between members of the obstetric team. Implementation of these guidelines would seem appropriate in a culture increasingly focused on patient safety.

Oxytocin as a high-alert medication: implications for perinatal patient safety.

Patient injury from drug therapy is the single most common type of adverse event that occurs in the in-patient setting. When medication errors result in patient injury, there are significant costs to the patient, healthcare providers, and institution. Some medications that have a heightened risk of causing significant patient harm when they are used in error are called "high-alert medications."In 2007, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices added intravenous (IV) oxytocin to their list of high-alert medications. This is significant for perinatal care providers because oxytocin is a drug that they use quite freguently. Errors that involve IV oxytocin administration for labor induction or augmentation are most commonly dose related and often involve lack of timely recognition and appropriate treatment of excessive uterine activity (tachysystole). Other types of oxytocin errors involve mistaken administration of IV fluids with oxytocin for IV fluid resuscitation during nonreassuring (abnormal or indeterminate) fetal heart rate patterns and/or maternal hypotension and inappropriate elective administration of oxytocin to women who are less than 39 completed weeks' gestation. Oxytocin medication errors and subsequent patient harm are generally preventable. The perinatal team can develop strategies to minimize risk of maternal-fetal injuries related to oxytocin administration consistent with safe care practices used with other high-alert medications.

Nurse-physician communication during labor and birth: implications for patient safety.

OBJECTIVE: To describe communication between nurses and physicians during labor within the context of the nurse-managed labor model in community hospitals and its relationship to teamwork and patient safety. DESIGN: Multicenter qualitative study involving focus groups and in-depth interviews. SETTING: Labor and birth units in 4 Midwestern community hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: 54 labor nurses and 38 obstetricians. METHODS: Focus groups and in-depth interviews were conducted using open-ended questions. Data were analyzed using inductive coding methods to gain understanding from the perspective of those directly involved. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Description of interdisciplinary interactions during labor. RESULTS: Nurses and physicians shared the common goal of a healthy mother and baby but did not always agree on methods to achieve that goal. Two clinical situations critical to patient safety (fetal assessment and oxytocin administration) were frequent areas of disagreement and sources of mutual frustration, often leading to less than optimal teamwork. Minimal communication occurred when the mother and fetus are doing well, and this seemed to be purposeful and considered normal. Physicians and nurses had distinct opinions concerning desirable traits of members of the other discipline. CONCLUSIONS: Interdisciplinary communication and teamwork could be improved to promote a safer care environment during labor and birth.

Obstetrical accidents involving intravenous magnesium sulfate: recommendations to promote patient safety.

Magnesium sulfate is commonly used in obstetrical practice both as seizure prophylaxis in women with preeclampsia, as well as to inhibit preterm labor contractions. However, despite (and perhaps because of) years of use and provider familiarity, the administration of magnesium sulfate occasionally results in accidental overdose and patient harm. Fortunately, in most instances when potentially fatal amounts of magnesium sulfate are given, the error is recognized before permanent adverse outcomes occur. Nevertheless, a significant and sometimes unappreciated risk of harm to mothers and babies continues to exist. Intravenous magnesium sulfate treatment has become routine practice in obstetrics, but this does not lessen the vigilance required for safe care for mothers and babies. Implementation of the recommendations provided in this article will promote patient safety and decrease the likelihood of an accidental overdose, as well as increase the chances of identifying an error before a significant adverse outcome occurs.

How do expert labor nurses view their role?

OBJECTIVE: To examine how expert perinatal nurses in a nurse-managed labor model view their role in caring for mothers during labor and birth. DESIGN: Focus group methodology. Data were analyzed using inductive coding methods to gain understanding from the perspective of those providing the care. SETTING: Labor and birth units in four large Midwestern medical centers. PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-four expert labor nurses. INCLUSION CRITERIA: 5 years experience in nursing care during labor and birth in institutions where nurse-managed labor was the predominant practice model. RESULTS: Four common themes related to nursing roles were identified. These included knowing the labor process and the intuitive nature of nursing care provided by expert labor nurses based on years of experience, knowing the woman and letting her body guide labor, advocacy for laboring woman, and the autonomous nature of the nurse-managed labor model. CONCLUSIONS: Expert labor nurses developed a keen sense of intuitive knowledge based on their years of experience. They reported using hands-on high-touch supportive care techniques with the potential to affect labor and birth outcomes. Autonomy is perceived as a key component of practice within the nurse-managed labor model.

Common areas of litigation related to care during labor and birth: recommendations to promote patient safety and decrease risk exposure.

Reducing the risk of liability exposure and avoiding preventable injuries to mothers and infants during labor and birth can be relatively easy when all members of the perinatal care team (nurses, nurse-midwives, and physicians) agree to follow two basic tenets of clinical practice: use applicable evidence and/or published standards and guidelines as the foundation for care and whenever a clinical choice is presented, choose patient safety rather than production. Adhering to these two principles could theoretically eliminate the need for extensive and overly detailed policy and procedure manuals. Most clinicians feel the need to have some written guidelines for practice. A summary of the most common foci of professional perinatal liability claims together with the most current applicable evidence and published standards and guidelines from professional associations and regulatory agencies is provided. The purpose is to provide a framework for reviewing existing institutional protocols and/or developing future policies and guidelines that decrease professional liability exposure and minimize the risk of iatrogenic injury to mothers and infants.