title: Care management problems on the labour ward: 5 years' experience of clinical risk management.
abstract: This is a retrospective review of 310 reports by staff following clinical risk incidents on the labour ward between 1996 and 2000 in a district general hospital with 3600 deliveries per year. Care management problems were identified and Reason's model of critical incident analysis applied to classify them into person- and system-based problems. Care management problems occurred in 165 (53%) cases, representing 0.9% of all deliveries. The main person-based problems were errors in CTG interpretation (22%), poor operative technique (22%) and non-standard practice/poor clinical judgement (19%). System-based problems included insufficient staff numbers (45%), ineffective teamwork/communication (39%) and inadequately maintained equipment (7%). Structured analysis of clinical incident reports can identify the extent and nature of obstetric care management problems and highlight important contributory areas potentially amenable to improvement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Northwick Park Hospital, Middlesex, UK.
authors.forename: Lorin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lakasing
authors.forename: J A D
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Spencer
mesh_terms: D019090:Case Management / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003696:Delivery Rooms / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D036861:Delivery, Obstetric / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006767:Hospitals, District; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012308:Risk Management / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*