title: Obstetric outcomes in a rural family practice: an eight-year experience.
abstract: There has been debate in some quarters of whether family physicians should do obstetrics and of whether rural hospitals should provide obstetric services. Forks, Washington, is a remote logging town where family physicians and midlevel practitioners have been the sole providers of labor and delivery services. Forks offers an opportunity to evaluate the quality of an isolated rural family practice obstetric service. A retrospective audit of all labor and delivery patient charts at Forks Community Hospital from 1975 to 1983 was undertaken; 1,052 charts were abstracted with 36 factors of morbidity, mortality, and intervention examined. The results, when compared with similar studies in the literature, provide evidence of good performance. In addition, a relatively high-risk obstetric population was served with favorable outcomes. Family physicians and rural hospitals can provide high-quality obstetrical services.
authors.affiliation: Family Medical Center, Forks, Washington 98331.
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kriebel
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Pitts
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006743:Hospital Bed Capacity, under 100; D006780:Hospitals, Rural; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009774:Obstetrics / Q000592:standards*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012423:Rural Health; D014861:Washington