Email Updates
Maternal Safety
Pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum year present a complex set of patient safety challenges. Numerous maternal safety initiatives aim to prevent errors and harm, while enhancing readiness to address maternal complications.
This perspective examines the troubling decline in maternal health outcomes in the United States and summarizes recent national initiatives to improve safety in maternity care.
This review provides background on high-reliability organizations and discusses how these concepts are applied in obstetric care.
A multifaceted approach to patient safety resulted in improvements in both patient- and provider-related outcomes over a 3-year time frame. The strategy was developed after consultation with obstetric safety experts... Read More
Implementing a comprehensive safety program, which included teamwork training, additional staffing and reduction of work hours, electronic medical records, and a dedicated patient safety nurse,... Read More
Building on the success of the Keystone ICU project model, this study also implemented a comprehensive unit-based safety program (CUSP) to improve safety culture and... Read More
Many organizations, including The Joint Commission and the National Partnership for Maternal Safety, recommend the use of early warning systems when treating maternity patients. This prospective study evaluated a maternal early... Read More
The rise in maternal morbidity and mortality is one of the most pressing patient safety issues in the United States. Formal debriefing after adverse events is an important method... Read More
Stanford, CA; California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative: July 1, 2022.
This toolkit focuses on identification of, and rapid response to, sepsis in obstetric patients. It includes screening, evaluation and monitoring, and antibiotic use recommendations for maternal sepsis patient.
A vital component of engaging patients in safety is eliciting their perspective on how they experience both routine care and adverse events. Researchers interviewed women who gave birth in hospitals about... Read More
Maternal morbidity has garnered increasing attention as a patient safety issue. This survey of postpartum women elicited reports of adverse events, unanticipated procedures, and sense of betrayal in health care institutions... Read More
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Reproductive Health; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Maternal harm during and after pregnancy is a sentinel event. This campaign encourages women, families, and health providers to identify and speak up with concerns about maternal care and act on them. The program seeks to inform the design of support systems and tool development... Read More
Obstetric care is considered a high-risk environment. Highlighting the importance of coordinated teamwork during obstetric emergencies, this review discusses strategies to augment clinical outcomes in this setting, including team training, communication improvement, and... Read More
Prior research has shown that reducing preventable perinatal harm leads to a decrease in malpractice claims. In this prospective study involving the perinatal... Read More
Simulation training can enhance teamwork, identify latent problems, and contribute to improved patient outcomes. This commentary explores the value of frontline obstetric simulation to develop... Read More
