Audit-identified avoidable factors in maternal and perinatal deaths in low resource settings: a systematic review

Background: Audits provide a rational framework for quality improvement by systematically assessing clinical practices against accepted standards with the aim to develop recommendations and interventions that target modifiable deficiencies in care. Most childbirth-associated mortality audits in developing countries are focused on a single facility and, up to now, the avoidable factors in maternal and perinatal deaths cataloged in these reports have not been pooled and analyzed. We sought to identity the most frequent avoidable factors in childbirth-related deaths globally through a systematic review of all published mortality audits in low and lower-middle income countries. Methods: We performed a systematic review of published literature from 1965 to November 2011 in Pubmed, Embase, CINAHL, POPLINE, LILACS and African Index Medicus. Inclusion criteria were audits from low and lower-middle income countries that identified at least one avoidable factor in maternal or perinatal mortality. Each study included in the analysis was assigned a quality score using a previously published instrument. A meta-analysis was performed for each avoidable factor taking into account the sample sizes and quality score from each individual audit. The study was conducted and reported according to PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews. Results: Thirty-nine studies comprising 44 datasets and a total of 6,205 audited deaths met inclusion criteria. The analysis yielded 42 different avoidable factors, which fell into four categories: health worker-oriented factors, patient-oriented factors, transport/referral factors, and administrative/supply factors. The top three factors by attributable deaths were substandard care by a health worker, patient delay, and deficiencies in blood transfusion capacity (accounting for 688, 665, and 634 deaths attributable, respectively). Health worker-oriented factors accounted for two-thirds of the avoidable factors identified. Conclusions: Audits provide insight into where systematic deficiencies in clinical care occur and can therefore provide crucial direction for the targeting of interventions to mitigate or eliminate health system failures. Given that the main causes of maternal and perinatal deaths are generally consistent across low resource settings, the specific avoidable factors identified in this review can help to inform the rational design of health systems with the aim of achieving continued progress towards Millennium Development Goals Four and Five. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2393-14-280) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Perspectives in quality: designing the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist

The World Health Organization's Patient Safety Programme created an initiative to improve the safety of surgery around the world. In order to accomplish this goal the programme team developed a checklist with items that could and, if at all possible, should be practised in all settings where surgery takes place. There is little guidance in the literature regarding methods for creating a medical checklist. The airline industry, however, has more than 70 years of experience in developing and using checklists. The authors of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist drew lessons from the aviation experience to create a safety tool that supports essential clinical practice. In order to inform the methodology for development of future checklists in health care, we review how we applied lessons learned from the aviation experience in checklist development to the development of the Surgical Safety Checklist and also discuss the differences that exist between aviation and medicine that impact the use of checklists in health car

Global Research Priorities to Better Understand the Burden of Iatrogenic Harm in Primary Care: An International Delphi Exercise

There is a need to identify and reach agreement on key foci for patient safety research in primary care contexts and understand how these priorities differ between low-, middle-, and high-income settings. We conducted a modified Delphi exercise, which was distributed to an international panel of experts in patient safety and primary care. Family practice and pharmacy were considered the main contexts on which to focus attention in order to advance patient safety in primary care across all income categories. Other clinical contexts prioritised included community midwifery and nursing in low-income countries and care homes in high-income countries. The sources of patient safety incidents requiring further study across all economic settings that were identified were communication between health care professionals and with patients, teamwork within the health care team, laboratory and diagnostic imaging investigations, issues relating to data management, transitions between different care settings, and chart/patient record com- pleteness. This work lays the foundation for a range of research initiatives that aim to promote a more comprehensive appreciation of the burden of unsafe primary care, develop understanding of the main areas of risk, and identify interventions that can enhance the safety of primary care provision internationall

Traumatic injury mechanisms and severity in Karachi, Pakistan: a single center prospective study

Background: Traumatic injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the developing world. Etiology and outcomes may differ substantially across regions and gender. Objective: We sought to describe the patterns of injury mechanism, treatment and outcomes in patients of all ages presenting at a major trauma center in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: All patients presenting for emergency treatment of moderate-to-severe acute traumatic injury between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011 were eligible for study. Injury Severity Scores (ISS) were calculated for each patient based on injury descriptions. Descriptive statistical methods, including Student’s t-tests and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, as well as Chi-square tests were used to compare differences between genders and across age groups. Inpatient treatment intensity and mortality were examined across patient factors. Results: A total of 678 individuals were eligible for study, of whom 89.2% were male. Median age was similar for male and female patients (29 vs. 27 years respectively; p=0.262). The vast majority of patients incurred road traffic injuries (RTI) with 58.7% of all injuries among males and 82.2% among females. Among males, 27.8% of admissions were related to gunshot wounds compared with 4.1% among females (p\u3c0.001). Falls represented 6.1 % of admissions and were evenly distributed across genders. Pedestrian injury was the most common trauma for patients aged 65 years or older encompassing 57.7% of all injuries in this age group. Overall, more than half of the patients were transferred to ICU care (30.2%) or to the OR (20.9%). Patient mortality was 4.0% and did not differ by gender (p=0.489). Conclusion: The majority of patients presenting with moderate-to-severe trauma had suffered RTI. Over half of all patients were treated with ICU and/or or surgical care and 4% of all patient died in-hospital. Injury patterns across age and gender suggest possible subpopulation-specific areas for Keywords: Truama, Injury, Karachi, Pakista

Designing the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist program to improve quality of care at childbirth.

BACKGROUND: Poor-quality care during institutional births in low- and middle-income countries is a major contributing factor to preventable maternal and newborn harm, but progress has been slow in identifying effective methods to address these deficiencies at scale. Based on the success of checklist programs in other disciplines, WHO led the design and field testing of the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist-a 29-item tool that targets the major causes of maternal and newborn mortality globally. METHODS: The development process consisted of comprehensive evidence and guideline review, in-person consultation with content experts and other key stakeholders, iterative refinement through ongoing discussions with a wide collaborator network, and field evaluation for usability in 9 countries, primarily in Africa and Asia. Pilot testing in South India demonstrated major improvement in health workers' delivery of essential safety practices after introduction of the program. RESULTS: WHO has launched a global effort to support further evaluation of the program in a range of contexts, and a randomized trial is underway in North India to measure the effectiveness of the program in reducing severe maternal, fetal, and newborn harm. CONCLUSION: A novel checklist program has been developed to support health workers in low-resource settings to prevent avoidable childbirth-related deaths

Choice of injury scoring system in low- and middle-income countries: Lessons from Mumbai

Introduction Injury is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries. Effective trauma surveillance is imperative to guide research and quality improvement interventions, so an accurate metric for quantifying injury severity is crucial. The objectives of this study are (1) to assess the feasibility of calculating five injury scoring systems - ISS (injury severity score), RTS (revised trauma score), KTS (Kampala trauma score), MGAP (mechanism, GCS (Glasgow coma score), age, pressure) and GAP (GCS, age, pressure) - with data from a trauma registry in a lower middle-income country and (2) to determine which of these scoring systems most accurately predicts in-hospital mortality in this setting. Patients and methods This is a retrospective analysis of data from an institutional trauma registry in Mumbai, India. Values for each score were calculated when sufficient data were available. Logistic regression was used to compare the correlation between each score and in-hospital mortality. Results There were sufficient data recorded to calculate ISS in 73% of patients, RTS in 35%, KTS in 35%, MGAP in 88% and GAP in 92%. ISS was the weakest predictor of in-hospital mortality, while RTS, KTS, MGAP and GAP scores all correlated well with in-hospital mortality (area under ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curve 0.69 for ISS, 0.85 for RTS, 0.86 for KTS, 0.84 for MGAP, 0.85 for GAP). Respiratory rate measurements, missing in 63% of patients, were a major barrier to calculating RTS and KTS. Conclusions Given the realities of medical practice in low- and middle-income countries, it is reasonable to modify the approach to characterising injury severity to favour simplified injury scoring systems that accurately predict in-hospital mortality despite limitations in trauma registry datasets