The Effect of an Oxytocin Decision Support Checklist on Oxytocin Use and Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Objective:  To assess the association between use of an oxytocin decision support checklist with oxytocin usage and clinical outcomes.

Study Design:  We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with singleton gestations at 37 weeks or greater who received oxytocin during labor from October 2012 to February 2017 at an integrated community health care system during three exposure periods: (1) prechecklist; (2) after paper checklist implementation; and (3) after checklist integration into the electronic medical record (EMR). The checklist was a clinical decision support tool to standardize the dosing and management of oxytocin.

Fetal heart rate patterns and the incidence of adverse events after oral misoprostol administration for cervical ripening among low-risk pregnancies.

Objective: Though misoprostol is commonly used for inpatient cervical ripening, its use in outpatient settings has been limited by safety concerns. This study was conducted to assess the association between early fetal heart tracing (FHT) and maternal tocodynamometry patterns and the incidence of adverse fetal and pregnancy outcomes after the administration of oral misoprostol for cervical ripening.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 9908 low-risk patients at ≥37 weeks gestation who received oral misoprostol for cervical ripening prior to rupture of membranes between 01/01/2012 and 12/31/2017 at Kaiser Permanente Northern California hospitals as inpatients.

Listening Beyond Auscultating: A Quality Initiative to Improve Communication Scores in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Care Practitioners and Systems Survey.

Introduction: Physician communication is critical to patient care. However, integration of sound communication practice with clinical workflows has proven difficult. In this quality improvement initiative, medical students used the rapid improvement model to test interventions that could enhance patients' perception of listening by physicians as measured by the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey.