Delivering Quality: Maternity Care Innovation in Critical Access Hospitals Delivering Quality: Maternity Care Innovation in Critical Access Hospitals

Abstract

Rural hospitals, including Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), face many challenges in providing maternity care. One resource for CAHs is state and national Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs), which often facilitate obstetric and neonatal partnerships and use of evidence-based quality improvement strategies. Patient safety bundles are often implemented through PQCs to improve clinical workflows and ultimately, patient outcomes. This case series describes interviews with six high-performing CAHs including the benefits of their PQCs, use of safety bundles, ongoing obstetric training for staff, and other strengths of their maternity care services. Interviews are described individually, though some commonalities emerged. These CAHs often focused on maternal hypertension and hemorrhage patient safety bundles, and also expressed the need for adapting these safety bundles to better suit their small facilities. They also described using a variety of delivery methods for staff training to maintain competency in maternity care, and highlighted their small community size as a strength and facilitator of providing patient-centered, personalized care for mothers and infants.

Topics

Maternity Care Best Practices Patient Safety Quality Quality Improvement