Creating effective teams and valuing patient-centered care to change culture and improve equity on labor and delivery: a qualitative study.

Background: Efforts to reduce cesarean birth overuse have had varied success. De-implementation strategies that incorporate change to organizational characteristics (i.e. culture) can improve adoption and sustainability. This study aimed to identify culture change strategies used by hospitals that achieved significant and sustained cesarean reduction and eliminated racial disparities in cesarean birth.

Methods: Hospitals in California and Florida that (1) engaged in quality initiatives to reduce cesarean births; (2) demonstrated at least a 5% cesarean birth reduction; and (3) sustained the reduction for 18 months after participation were invited to participate. Hospitals that reduced also cesarean racial disparity were prioritized for recruitment. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were performed with leaders, obstetricians, family physicians, midwives, and nurses providing intrapartum care. Reflexive thematic analysis and values coding were used.

Results: 35 participants from 6 hospitals (3 in California, 3 in Florida) participated in interviews or focus groups. Nurse-focused strategies included: leadership demonstrating support for proactive labor support (e.g., Spinning Babies, comfort measures, nursing time at bedside); enhanced communication through inter-disciplinary team huddles; clear delineation of roles; and a chain of command that assured nurses could advocate for their patients freely and without retribution. Physician-focused strategies included regular and publicly visible feedback delivered by trusted messengers, drawing attention to successful vaginal births, and highlighting the contributions of labor support. A theme of hiring/retaining for "fit" was articulated at all hospitals, most notably, the hospital that eliminated their cesarean birth racial disparity, where "fit" was conceptualized as empathy, humanism, and a desire to meet community needs.

Conclusions: This study identified specific de-implementation strategies for hospitals to change implementation context, namely culture, to achieve and sustain reduction of cesarean birth. Hospitals looking to sustain culture change should adapt strategies to align with existing clinician values, change attitudes through sharing successful vaginal births, and modify beliefs through education from trusted messengers. Strategies to reduce racial disparities should emphasize designing teams that are aware of and prioritize community needs, including hiring staff from the local community, and partnering with community-based organizations.