New affected individual safety interventions support lessen errors in obstetrical treatment

The individual safety enhancements implemented at Yale-New Haven Hospital consist of communication training, standardizing interpretation of foetal monitoring, and improving hospital staff’s personal perception of the security climate in obstetrical treatment.

“There can be a crisis of confidence in American healthcare suitable now. Reports within the media about affected individual injury from the hospital setting had been causing concern, and we sought to apply some fundamental principles to obstetric care to create it a wonderful deal safer than it is suitable now,” says Dr. Edmund F. Funai, an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale

In tracking and analysing 14 markers for adverse outcomes, the team found that the rate of adverse events decreased by about 60 per cent over 2.5 years, while the staff’s personal perception of the overall safety climate increased by 30 per cent, according to a survey given by a third party.

Funai says that the main cause of adverse events and affected individual injury is often a breakdown in communication, usually involving failure to recognize the severity of a given situation or condition, often involving a newborn’s status.

“Communication issues are only going to increase as a result of restrictions on resident work hours. Patients are increasingly handed off from shift to shift and more attending physicians are practicing shift medicine. There is just more opportunity for errors in client care. Everything we can do to standardize treatment and facilitate communication will make a big difference,” he said.

“After taking these surprisingly simple steps to address security, both patients and staff report that the care is much more seamless and better organized. The staff is more comfortable and empowered to communicate their concerns about a patient. A comfortable staff often leads to more successful affected person outcomes,” he added.

The preliminary results from this research had been presented at the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas, on February 2.