The sector- and service-based standards are based upon the five key elements1 of Service Excellence: Clinical Leadership, People, Process, Information, and Performance.
These standards contain the following subsections:
- Investing in obstetrics/perinatal care services
- Engaging prepared and proactive Staff
- Providing safe and appropriate services
- Maintaining safe obstetric/perinatal equipment
- Maintaining accessible and efficient clinical information systems
- Monitoring quality and achieving positive outcomes
Each standards section is specific to a service or sector and is used to assess quality at the point of service delivery. For this standards section, the client is defined to include both the mother and the fetus or newborn infant/neonate. Family is defined by each client and may include the infant’s father, members of the immediate family such as siblings, and members of the extended family or caregivers.
For this standards section, the term “child” refers to the newborn infant or neonate, up to 28 days old.
As you consider Accreditation Canada’s Obstetrics/Perinatal Care Services standards and criteria, you may want to reference the MOREOB program (Managing Obstetrical Risk Efficiently) developed by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC). The MOREOB Patient Safety Program is an obstetrical hospital risk/error reduction program delivered on a province-wide basis to all hospital birthing units. The program integrates the lessons learned from managing risk and adverse events in industry and organizational structures into the obstetrical field and promotes a culture of patient safety. The MOREOB program is an innovative approach to the care of pregnant women in hospitals that emphasizes teamwork, effective communication, interdisciplinary (nurses, midwives, family physicians, obstetricians) education, multidisciplinary review of normal and abnormal events, frequent skills practices and emergency drills. It brings together all health care professionals in the birthing unit in educational workshops and provides the process and methods to eliminate a culture of blame in hospitals. More information on the MOREOB program can be found on the web site of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada at www.sogc.org.
1 Nelson et al, “Microsystems in Healthcare: Part 1: Learning from High-Performing Front-Line Clinical Units,” Joint Commission Journal on Quality Improvement. September (2002): 472-493.