Women's Health Council Asks for FP Survey Participants

August 27, 2018, 04:17 pm Chris Crawford – The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any high-resource country, and it's increasing.

That's why the Council on Patient Safety in Women's Health Care, of which the AAFP is a member, has made it its mission to continually improve patient safety in women's health care by driving cultural change through multidisciplinary collaboration.

The group is looking to follow through on this mission by asking family physicians to complete a quick survey that will inform new resources and tools related to implementation of its patient safety bundles. 

The survey takes eight to 12 minutes to complete and the deadline has been extended to Sept. 15. Participants are invited to share their experiences with the council's patient safety bundles, whether they have fully implemented a bundle or have only begun considering implementation.

Jennifer Frost, M.D., medical director for the AAFP Health of the Public and Science Division, served on the council, which is led by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She told AAFP News the Academy was involved in developing the patient safety bundles, which provide best practices for preventing the leading causes of maternal morbidity and mortality.

"The bundles provide tools to help with their implementation, but also include flexibility to allow each organization to adjust the bundles to their specific needs and resources," Frost said. "They are intended to help standardize systems of care to avoid maternal death."

The patient safety bundles, which can be downloaded in PDF form, address

• maternal mental health,
  
• maternal venous thromboembolism,
  
• obstetric care for women with opioid use disorder,
  
• obstetric hemorrhage,
  
• postpartum care basics from birth to the comprehensive postpartum visit,
  
• postpartum care basics on transitioning from maternity to well-woman care,
  
• prevention of retained vaginal sponges after birth,
  
• reduction of peripartum racial/ethnic disparities,
  
• safe reduction of primary cesarean birth,
  
• severe hypertension in pregnancy,
  
• severe maternal morbidity, and
  
• support after a severe maternal event.

Each bundle includes information on readiness, recognition and prevention, response, and reporting/systems learning. They also offer complete resource listings and supporting commentary from relevant journals.

Additionally, the council offers a nonobstetric bundle on the prevention of surgical site infections after gynecologic surgery.

On top of its patient safety bundles, the council offers patient safety tools on maternal early warning criteria, severe maternal morbidity forms and a toolkit on implementing quality improvement projects.

Related AAFP News Coverage
Number of Women With OUD in Labor/Delivery Quadruples
CDC Data Show Increases in All States Studied
(8/21/2018)

How to Maintain FP Interest in Providing Maternity Care?
Researchers Look for Clues in Residency Programs
(4/11/2018)