December 14, 2021
The Health Collaborative Inspire Awards have recognized the Good Samaritan Hospital obstetrics team as the recipient of this year’s Richard M. Smith, MD Leadership in Quality Improvement Award. This award is given to the person or team that goes above and beyond normal job expectations to identify an opportunity to improve patient care and safety.
TriHealth and The Good Sam obstetrics team have an unmatched commitment and passion to reducing harm and improving overall outcomes for all babies. They have improved performance metrics in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the Triple Aim approach in mind, the Obstetrics Team made significant advancements in three separate initiatives:
- Decreased the obstetrical hemorrhage rate by 38%
- Improved on-time starts for obstetrics operating room cases from less than 30% on-time starts to a whopping 74%
- Decreased surgical site infections for cesarean section patients by 75%
Kristen Coppage, MD, System Chief, TriHealth Women's Services, Tonya Johannnemann, MSN, RN, NE-BC, Director of Perinatal Services, Carolyn Slone, MSOL, RN, NE-BC, C-EFM, Alison Weber, MSN/Ed, RNC-OB, C-EFM, and William T. Schnettler, MD FACOG, Perinatologist, Chairman Good Samaritan Hospital Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology accepted the award for the team’s hard work.
Obstetrical hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide. It is also the leading cause of severe maternal morbidity in the United States. Most of these deaths are preventable. Seeing this need, the team developed a safety bundle which includes things like a hemorrhage cart with rapid access to medications available in all units, utilization of a response team, assessment of hemorrhage risk before, during, and after each patient is admitted, the development of a massive transfusion protocol, and utilization of Best Practice Advisory’s to identify High Risk patients.
Several procedures were put into place to decrease the probability of cesarean section surgical site infections. Surgical site infection occurrences decreased from 8 to 2 in only one year’s time with the following protocols:
- Administration of antibiotics 60 minutes prior to incision followed by a vaginal prep
- Providing a silver dressing (Mepilex AG) to patients with identified infection risk factors for use along with inter-dry (a wicking fabric) to decrease moisture in skin folds.
To improve on-time starts in the operating room the process was reconfigured. There is now a team dedicated to operating room to perform only scheduled cases. There is a second team available to respond to unscheduled or delayed cases, as well as a team for any emergencies that may occur.
Congratulations to the team for your continued commitment to excellence.
Excellent outcomes! Well Deserved.
Posted by: Darla Daniel on December 15, 2021
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