Perceptions of Safety Improvement Among Clinicians Before and After Participation in a Multistate Postpartum Hemorrhage Project.

Objective: To measure whether implementation of a comprehensive, 18-month, multihospital, multiregion postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) project influenced intrapartum clinicians' perceptions of patient safety.

Design: Pre- and post-survey design.

Setting: Survey results from eight hospitals in Georgia, New Jersey, and Washington that participated in the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) PPH Project were included in the final analysis.

The importance of interdepartmental collaboration and safe triage for pregnant women in the emergency department.

Pregnant women who present to the emergency department can present challenges that range from the diagnoses of unsuspected pregnancies to the determination of where evaluations should occur. In this review we identify literature associated with the triage of pregnant women in the emergency department and propose a model for triage and evaluation of pregnant women in the emergency department. Strategies are described to facilitate interdepartmental communication to optimize safe maternal/fetal care.

A system-wide initiative to prevent retained vaginal sponges.

As any perinatal nurse knows, retained vaginal sponges are an obstetrical and postpartum patient safety problem. As surgical sponge counts are not routine in some obstetrical units for vaginal births, our healthcare system chose to institute a rigorous process to eliminate retained sponges in all vaginal births. This article describes this process, along with the lessons learned, when Catholic Healthcare West implemented the Sponge ACCOUNTing System in its 32 hospitals in California, Arizona, and Nevada.