A population-based study to identify the prevalence and correlates of the dual burden of severe maternal morbidity and preterm birth in California.

BACKGROUND: Prior studies have documented associations between preterm birth and severe maternal morbidity (SMM) but the prevalence and correlates of dual burden are not adequately understood, despite significant family implications. PURPOSE: To describe the prevalence and correlates of the dual burden of SMM and preterm birth and to understand profiles of SMM by dual burden of preterm birth.Approach: This retrospective cohort study included all California live births in 2007-2012 with gestations 20-44 weeks and linked to a birth cohort database maintained by the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (n = 3,059,156). Dual burden was defined as preterm birth (<37 weeks) with severe maternal morbidity (SMM, defined by Centers for Disease Control). Predictors for dual burden were assessed using Poisson logistic regression, accounting for hospital variance. RESULTS: Rates of preterm birth and SMM were 876 and 140 per 10,000 births, respectively. The most common indications of SMM both with and without preterm birth were blood transfusions and a combination of cardiac indications. One-quarter of women with SMM experienced preterm birth with a dual burden rate of 37 per 10,000 births. Risk of dual burden was over threefold higher with cesarean birth (primiparous primary aRR = 3.3, CI = 3.0-3.6; multiparous primary aRR = 8.1, CI = 7.2-9.1; repeat aRR = 3.9, CI = 3.5-4.3). Multiple gestation conferred a six-fold increased risk (aRR = 6.3, CI = 5.8-6.9). Women with preeclampsia superimposed on gestational hypertension (aRR = 7.3, CI = 6.8-7.9) or preexisting hypertension (aRR = 11.1, CI = 9.9-12.5) had significantly higher dual burden risk. Significant independent predictors for dual burden included smoking during pregnancy (aRR = 1.5, CI = 1.4-1.7), preexisting hypertension without preeclampsia (aRR = 3.3, CI = 3.0-3.7), preexisting diabetes (aRR = 2.6, CI = 2.3-3.0), Black race/ethnicity (aRR = 2.0, CI = 1.8-2.2), and prepregnancy body mass index <18.5 (aRR = 1.4, CI = 1.3-1.5). CONCLUSIONS: Dual burden affects 1900 California families annually. The strongest predictors of dual burden were hypertensive disorders with preeclampsia and multiparous primary cesarean.

How care decisions are made among interdisciplinary providers caring for critically injured patients: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Injury is the leading cause of death in people under 45 years of age in the United States; however, how care decisions occur in critical injury is poorly understood. This exploratory study sought to generate hypotheses about how care decisions are made among interdisciplinary providers caring for patients who have been critically injured. METHODS: This was a qualitative study conducted at two intensive care units in a level 1 trauma center in an urban, teaching, safety-net hospital. Semistructured interviews consisted of case scenarios with competing clinical priorities presented to 25 interdisciplinary providers, elucidating how decisions are approached. Responses were recorded, transcribed, and coded. Thematic analysis was conducted to discover central themes. Category formulation and sorting was done for data reduction and thematic structuring of the data. The range and central tendency of these themes are reported. RESULTS: The central theme for how care decisions are made among interdisciplinary providers was through the distribution of shared responsibility. The distribution of shared responsibility depended on interdisciplinary communication to navigate the two subthemes of time and roles. Time had to be navigated carefully, because it was both an opportunity for data acquisition and consensus building but also a pressure to decisively progress care. Roles were distinct but interchangeable and consisted of experts, actualizers, and questioners. CONCLUSION: Care decisions are made in the context of shared responsibility among interdisciplinary providers. Interdisciplinary communication is a means of establishing roles and navigating time to distribute shared responsibility among interdisciplinary providers.

Confronting safety gaps across labor and delivery teams.

We assessed the occurrence of 4 safety concerns among labor and delivery teams: dangerous shortcuts, missing competencies, disrespect, and performance problems. A total of 3282 participants completed surveys, and 92% of physicians (906 of 985), 93% of midwives (385 of 414), and 98% of nurses (1846 of 1884) observed at least 1 concern within the preceding year. A majority of respondents said these concerns undermined patient safety, harmed patients, or led them to seriously consider transferring or leaving their positions. Only 9% of physicians, 13% of midwives, and 13% of nurses shared their full concerns with the person involved. Organizational silence is evident within labor-and-delivery teams. Improvement will require multiple strategies, used at the personal, social, and structural levels.

Dancing around death: hospitalist-patient communication about serious illness.

Hospital physicians care for most seriously ill patients in the United States. We employed dimensional analysis to describe communication about death and dying in audio-recorded admission encounters between seriously ill patients and hospitalists. Acknowledging or not acknowledging the possibility of dying emerged as a key process. Acknowledgment was rare, and depended on synergistic communication behaviors between patient and physician. Facilitators included patients cuing for information and disclosing emotional distress, and physicians exploring the patient's understanding of his or her illness and emotional distress. When hospitalists focused on acute issues, stated that they were awaiting test results, and deferred to other physicians, discussion moved away from acknowledgment. Meaningful discussion of end-of-life issues, including goals and values, fears about death and dying, prognosis, and options for palliative care followed open acknowledgment. This acknowledgment process can serve as a guide for providers to sensitively and honestly discuss essential end-of-life issues.

Perinatal safety: from concept to nursing practice.

Communication and teamwork problems are leading causes of documented preventable adverse outcomes in perinatal care. An essential component of perinatal safety is the organizational culture in which clinicians work. Clinicians' individual and collective authority to question the plan of care and take action to change the direction of a clinical situation in the patient's best interest can be viewed as their "agency for safety." However, collective agency for safety and commitment to support nurses in their role of advocacy is missing in many perinatal care settings. This article draws from Organizational Accident Theory, High Reliability Theory, and Symbolic Interactionism to describe the nurse's role in maintaining safety during labor and birth in acute care settings and suggests actions for supporting the perinatal nurse at individual, group, and systems levels to achieve maximum safety in perinatal care.

Communication and teamwork in patient care: how much can we learn from aviation?

OBJECTIVE: To identify evidence on the role of assertiveness and teamwork and the application of aviation industry techniques to improve patient safety for inpatient obstetric care. DATA SOURCES: Studies limited to research with humans in English language retrieved from CINAHL, PubMed, Social Science Abstracts, and Social Sciences Citation Index, and references from reviewed articles. STUDY SELECTION: A total of 13 studies were reviewed, including 5 studies of teamwork, communication, and safety attitudes in aviation; 2 studies comparing these factors in aviation and health care; and 6 studies of assertive behavior and decision making by nurses. Studies lacking methodological rigor or focusing on medication errors and deviant behavior were excluded. DATA SYNTHESIS: Pilot attitudes regarding interpersonal interaction on the flight deck predicted effective performance and were amenable to behavior-based training to improve team performance. Nursing knowledge was inconsistently accessed in decision making. Findings regarding nurse assertiveness were mixed. CONCLUSIONS: Adaptation of training concepts and safety methods from other fields will have limited impact on perinatal safety without an examination of the contextual experiences of nurses and other health care providers in working to prevent patient harm.