Toolkit for Improving Perinatal Safety | Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

AHRQ Safety Program for Perinatal Care

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) developed the Safety Program for Perinatal Care (SPPC) in order to improve the patient safety culture of labor and delivery (L&D) units and decrease maternal and neonatal adverse events resulting from poor communication and system failures. The SPPC is organized around three program pillars, which include: Teamwork and Communication skills, Perinatal Safety Strategies, and In Situ Simulation training. This toolkit was developed to support implementation of the three program pillars. The toolkit helps L&D units improve patient safety, team communication, and quality of care for mothers and their newborns. It builds on knowledge gained from AHRQ’s Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) and the TeamSTEPPS® teamwork system, and from findings from AHRQ’s patient safety and medical liability initiative demonstration grants. The tools can be customized to local unit processes and procedures.

The Toolkit is organized around three pillars—Teamwork and Communication for Perinatal Safety, Perinatal Safety Strategies, and In Situ Simulations—that an L&D unit can use to teach team members how to apply CUSP to prevent obstetrical adverse events. Use of this toolkit can create or enhance a culture of patient safety to significantly reduce preventable errors.

Each pillar contains a PowerPoint slide set, accompanying facilitator guide, and supporting CUSP tools to support change at the unit level.

“AHRQ Safety Program for Perinatal Care: Experiences From the Frontline” describes the implementation experiences of five L&D units that successfully implemented the program.

The toolkit was developed as part of a national implementation project to improve patient safety in L&D units. The five-year project brought together subject matter experts and participating hospitals across the country.