Abstract

BERNZTEIN, Ricardo Gustavo  and  GILMORE, Carol Mae. Quality and Safety of More Complex Argentine Public Maternity Hospitals: Results of External Evaluations. Rev. argent. salud pública [online]. 2017, vol.8, n.31, pp.27-33. ISSN 1852-7513.

INTRODUCTION: To contribute to reducing maternal and infant mortality, the National Ministry of Health implemented a project of external evaluation (EE) of public hospitals providing maternity care under category IIIB. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality and safety in maternity hospitals in Argentina. METHODS: The study used a tool with 254 risk-weighted standards, including 24 trained evaluators, tracing of patient care, interviews with staff and patients, document review, visits to services, photos, and observation. Information was gathered from primary sources. RESUETS: A total of 16 hospitals were evaluated (median: 4125 births annually). The processes of highest-risk were: medication management, surgery, error reporting, patient identification, adult cardiopulmonary resuscitation and obstetric emergency preparedness, communication, staff and services (continuity of care, personnel on-duty, availability of ultrasound examinations, anesthesiologists, auxiliary personnel, control of competencies, use of guidelines), infection control, and safety of the environment. CONCLUSIONS: Many unsafe processes were identified in high-complexity public maternity hospitals. EEs are effective for gathering information about risks, prioritizing processes for improvement, and estimating the frequency of occurrence of systemic problems. They should be part of a national quality strategy considering support, incentives, and mandatory requirements so that hospitals take action to reduce risk.

Keywords : Patient Safety; Medication Errors; Public Health; Pharmacovigilance.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )