574 Improving information provided by labour ward staff when requesting neonatal attendance at deliveries – a QI project

Abstract

<h3>Background</h3> Handover is an essential component to ensuring patient safety. It was noted by neonatal staff that there was variation in which team members were being contacted and the information provided by Labour Ward and Theatre staff when requesting neonatal attendance at a delivery. <h3>Objectives</h3> Our aim was to assess the handover provided to identify areas where this could be improved. <h3>Methods</h3> We devised a data collection form, and collected information for each phone call we received over a two week period. We collected data on which staff were called/paged to attend, and the information provided. <h3>Results</h3> We found that there was a wide variation in relation to which team members were being called/paged. The registrar was only paged 64% of the time, and 23% of the time neither doctor was paged and only the neonatal unit ward phone called. We were informed of gestation 38% of the time, and reason for attendance 87% of the time. It was decided that the registrar and FY2 were required to be contacted for a delivery, and the neonatal unit did not need to be called separately. Signs were put above phones in labour ward and theatre informing staff of the page numbers to be contacted, and the information required. Senior staff on Labour Ward disseminated this information to their staff and included it in daily safety briefs. We performed a second round of data collection six weeks following this intervention. There remained some variation in who was contacted, however there was improvement with the registrar now being paged 79% of the time, and only the neonatal unit ward phone being called reduced to 10%. We were now informed of the gestation 59% of the time, and reason for attendance had increased to 100%. <h3>Conclusions</h3> This project showed that a simple intervention can make an improvement in the quality of information provided between teams. By ensuring that the correct team members were contacted this allowed for the necessary staff to attend a delivery with minimal delay. By providing important information to the neonatal team it allowed the registrar to decide if a neonatal nurse was also required to attend a delivery, thereby ensuring that their resources and staff were being utilised effectively.