Automated Alert System of Second-Line Uterotonic Drug Administration.

Multidisciplinary team management of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is needed to optimize care and improve outcomes. Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford, is a tertiary referral center with 4600 deliveries/y (>70% high-risk deliveries), and there have been times when the obstetric anesthesia team was alerted late or not at all for PPHs. Introduction of an automated alert process to the obstetric anesthesia team when a second-line uterotonic drug was administered has ensured prompt evaluation. Utilization of this automated drug alert system has improved communication and reduced failure to inform the obstetric anesthesiology team of PPH after vaginal and cesarean deliveries.

Steps toward a national disaster plan for obstetrics.

Hospitals play a central role in disasters by receiving an influx of casualties and coordinating medical efforts to manage resources. However, plans have not been fully developed in the event the hospital itself is severely damaged, either from natural disasters like earthquakes or tornados or manmade events such as a massive electrical failure or terrorist attacks. Of particular concern is the limited awareness of the obstetric units' specialized needs in the world of disaster planning. Within the same footprint of any obstetric unit, there exists a large variety of patient acuity and needs including laboring women, postoperative patients, and healthy postpartum patients with their newborns. An obstetric-specific triage method is paramount to accurately assess and rapidly triage patients during a disaster. An example is presented here called OB TRAIN (Obstetric Triage by Resource Allocation for Inpatient). To accomplish a comprehensive obstetric disaster plan, there must be 1) national adoption of a common triage and evacuation language including an effective patient tracking system to avoid maternal-neonatal separation; 2) a stratification of maternity hospital levels of care; and 3) a collaborative network of obstetric hospitals, both regionally and nationally. However, obstetric disaster planning goes beyond evacuation and must include plans for shelter-in-place and surge capacity, all uniquely designed for the obstetric patient. Disasters, manmade or natural, are neither predictable nor preventable, but we can and should prepare for them.

Obstetric life support.

The death of a woman during pregnancy is devastating. Although the incidence of maternal cardiac arrest is increasing, it continues to be a comparatively rare event. Obstetric healthcare providers may go through their entire career without participating in a maternal cardiac resuscitation. Concern has been raised that when an arrest does occur in the obstetric unit, providers who are trained in life support skills at 2-year intervals are ill equipped to provide the best possible care. The quality of resuscitation skills provided during cardiopulmonary arrest of inpatients often may be poor, and knowledge of critical steps to be followed during resuscitation may not be retained after life support training. The Obstetric Life Support (ObLS) training program is a method of obstetric nursing and medical staff training that is relevant, comprehensive, and cost-effective. It takes into consideration both the care needs of the obstetric patient and the adult learning needs of providers. The ObLS program brings obstetric nurses, obstetricians, and anesthesiologists together in multidisciplinary team training that is crucial to developing efficient emergency response.