Reduction in massive postpartum haemorrhage and red blood cell transfusion during a national quality improvement project, Obstetric Bleeding Strategy for Wales, OBS Cymru: an observational study.

BACKGROUND: Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) is a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality and its incidence is increasing in many countries despite management guidelines. A national quality improvement programme called the Obstetric Bleeding Strategy for Wales (OBS Cymru) was introduced in all obstetric units in Wales. The aim was to reduce moderate PPH (1000 mL) progressing to massive PPH (> 2500 mL) and the need for red cell transfusion. METHODS: A PPH care bundle was introduced into all 12 obstetric units in Wales included all women giving birth in 2017 and 2018 (n = 61,094). The care bundle prompted: universal risk assessment, quantitative measurement of blood loss after all deliveries (as opposed to visual estimation), structured escalation to senior clinicians and point-of-care viscoelastometric-guided early fibrinogen replacement. Data were submitted by each obstetric unit to a national database. Outcome measures were incidence of massive PPH (> 2500 mL) and red cell transfusion. Analysis was performed using linear regression of the all Wales monthly data. RESULTS: Uptake of the intervention was good: quantitative blood loss measurement and risk assessment increased to 98.1 and 64.5% of all PPH > 1000 mL, whilst ROTEM use for PPH > 1500 mL increased to 68.2%. Massive PPH decreased by 1.10 (95% CI 0.28 to 1.92) per 1000 maternities per year (P = 0.011). Fewer women progressed from moderate to massive PPH in the last 6 months, 74/1490 (5.0%), than in the first 6 months, 97/1386 (7.0%), (P = 0.021). Units of red cells transfused decreased by 7.4 (95% CI 1.6 to 13.2) per 1000 maternities per year (P = 0.015). Red cells were transfused to 350/15204 (2.3%) and 268/15150 (1.8%) (P = 0.001) in the first and last 6 months, respectively. There was no increase in the number of women with lowest haemoglobin below 80 g/L during this time period. Infusions of fresh frozen plasma fell and there was no increase in the number of women with haemostatic impairment. CONCLUSIONS: The OBS Cymru care bundle was feasible to implement and associated with progressive, clinically significant improvements in outcomes for PPH across Wales. It is applicable across obstetric units of widely varying size, complexity and staff mixes.

Examining the order-of-limits problem and lattice constant performance of the Tao-Mo functional.

In their recent communication, Tao and Mo [Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 073001 (2016)] presented a semi-local density functional derived from the density matrix expansion of the exchange hole localized by a general coordinate transformation. We show that the order-of-limits problem present in the functional, dismissed as harmless in the original publication, causes severe errors in predicted phase transition pressures. We also show that the claim that lattice volume prediction accuracy exceeds that of existing similar functionals was based on comparison to reference data that miss anharmonic zero-point expansion and consequently overestimates accuracy. By highlighting these omissions, we give a more accurate assessment of the Tao-Mo functional and show a possible direction for resolving the order-of-limits problem.

PROMPT Wales project: national scaling of an evidence-based intervention to improve safety and training in maternity.

BACKGROUND: In healthcare, there is increasing recognition of the importance of developing and testing strategies to scale effective interventions. The NHS long-term plan (2019) acknowledges that often a gold standard approach to a problem already exists somewhere within the NHS, however, it has not been replicated widely across the system. METHODS: We describe the approach and process measures for national scaling of PROMPT (Practical Obstetric Multi-Professional Training) across 12 obstetric-led maternity units in Wales. PROMPT is an evidence-based training package for local maternity staff, previously associated with improvements in maternal and neonatal outcomes, reduction in litigation related to preventable harm and improved safety culture. PROMPT has previously been disseminated internationally using a train-the-trainer model. However, this has been associated with variations in uptake, fidelity and impact. In Wales, the project was supported by Welsh Government, and a structured scaling plan was developed, encompassing ongoing implementation support from a multi-professional team. RESULTS: PROMPT was successfully implemented in all obstetric led units in Wales, with 326 local PROMPT facilitators trained, and 82.5%-100% of maternity staff attended a local PROMPT course in the first 15 months of the project (January 2019-March 2020). All training courses included evidence-based authentic elements, and 93% of courses in the first year (100/107) were supported by a national implementation team, providing coaching, implementation support and quality assurance. CONCLUSIONS: Authentically scaling up complex interventions is a significant challenge. To replicate the improved outcomes demonstrated by PROMPT, intervention reach and fidelity must first be demonstrated.In this national scaling project, our scaling methodology led to the successful implementation of PROMPT across all health boards in Wales. Additionally, we demonstrated reduced variation in adoption, reach, timescale and intervention fidelity between maternity units with varying readiness for change, which had been difficult in two previous large-scale PROMPT implementation projects.

Adiabatic Connection without Coupling Constant Integration.

Using a second-order approximation to Random Phase Approximation renormalized (RPAr) many-body perturbation theory for the interacting density-density response function, we have developed a so-called higher-order terms (HOT) approximation for the correlation energy. In combination with the first-order RPAr correction, our new method faithfully captures the infinite-order correlation for a given exchange-correlation kernel, yielding errors of the total correlation energy on the order of 1% or less for most systems. For exchange-like kernels, our new method has the further benefit that the coupling-strength integration can be completely eliminated resulting in a modest reduction in computational cost compared to the traditional approach. When the correlation energy is accurately reproduced by the HOT approximation, structural properties and energy differences are also accurately reproduced, as we demonstrate for several periodic solids and some molecular systems. Energy differences involving fragmentation are challenging for the HOT method, however, due to errors that may not cancel between a composite system and its constituent pieces.

Hemangiopericytoma of greater omentum presenting as a huge abdominal lump.

Hemangiopericytoma is a rare neoplasm that can occur in any part of the human body, but it rarely develops in the greater omentum. We report a case of a patient who presented with a huge abdominal lump. At laparotomy, a huge vascular tumor, which was observed originating from the greater omentum, was resected. Histopathology investigation revealed this tumor as a benign hemangiopericytoma with a malignant potential.