August 08, 2008

The providers and staff in the obstetric units have been busy lately with two new projects designed to provide better patient care. The first relates to the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative, a worldwide program that awards and recognizes hospitals that have achieved significant success in encouraging breastfeeding among new mothers. NYU Langone Medical Center was recently awarded a Certificate of Intent, the first step in the process of being certified a "Baby-Friendly USA" hospital, reflecting our relatively high rate of breastfeeding among mothers at discharge (86-89%).

The next steps include intensifying training of both staff and new mothers to promote breastfeeding and establishing policies that foster its practice. In addition, a research component is being led by the director of nursing research and others, looking into mothers' experiences with breastfeeding and investigating correlations between parental education, the impact of working with a certified lactation consultant and other parameters. Data collected will help direct changes in care and, by extension, improve the percentage of breastfeeding mothers at our hospital.

Team Training

The second project applies a communication model, successfully implemented in the aviation and defense industries, to improve safety and ensure maximum quality for obstetrical patients. Called Team Training, it involves daily group briefing, "huddles" and other communication techniques designed to provide consistency and prevent medical errors by capturing and addressing warning signs as they happen. Over 200 people - including OB and anesthesiology attending physicians, residents, nursing staff, surgical techs, patient unit clerks and building services staff - have completed the four-hour training program on communication, which was taught by physician-nurse teams.

The official kick-off of the initiative was July 29, 2008, when twice-daily team meetings were formally initiatied. This project also includes a technology component: recently installed oversized display monitors give providers at the nursing station a bird's eye view of all patients on both 8 East and 8 West and immediate access to fetal monitoring and other pertinent clinical data. The Team Training project is a pilot program, and may be expanded to other units pending successful implementation.