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  • Implementing the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist: lessons learnt on a quality improvement initiative to improve mother and newborn care at Gobabis District Hospital, Namibia

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Quality improvement report
Implementing the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist: lessons learnt on a quality improvement initiative to improve mother and newborn care at Gobabis District Hospital, Namibia
  1. Leonard Kabongo1,
  2. Jonathon Gass2,
  3. Beatrice Kivondo1,
  4. Nabihah Kara2,
  5. Katherine Semrau2,3,
  6. Lisa R Hirschhorn4
  1. 1 Gobabis Hospital, Ministry of Health and Social Services, Gobabis, Namibia
  2. 2 Ariadne Labs, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  3. 3 Division Global Health Equity, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  4. 4 Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Leonard Kabongo, Gobabis Hospital, Ministry of Health and Social Services, Gobabis, Namibia; leonkab1{at}yahoo.com

Abstract

Background Although there are many evidence-based practices that reduce the risk of maternal and neonatal mortality around the time of birth, there remains a gap between what is known and the care received. This know-do gap is a source of preventable maternal and perinatal deaths and is the focus of improvement efforts in many countries. Following an increase in perinatal and maternal deaths, Gobabis District Hospital initiated a quality improvement (QI) initiative to increase adherence to these WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist (SCC)-targeted essential birth practices (EBPs).

Methods We implemented the SCC with support from leadership, coaching and organisational redesign. Implementation was led by a facility champion supported by a QI team and adapted through a series of three 8-week Plan–Do–Study–Act (PDSA) cycles.

Results During the 6-month period, we observed an improvement of average EBPs delivered from 68% to 95%. We also found reductions in perinatal mortality rates from 22 deaths/1000 deliveries to 13.8/1000 deliveries largely due to a drop in fresh stillbirths.

Conclusion We conclude that replicating the programme is feasible, acceptable and effective in areas where gaps exist, but it requires local leadership, ongoing coaching and adaptation through PDSA cycles.

  • Pdsa
  • obstetrics and gynecology
  • checklists

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2017-000145

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    Footnotes

    • Funding This work was supported in part by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval Ethical approval was granted by the Namibia National Quality Assurance Unit, the agency coordinating all quality improvement projects in Namibia. No identifiable information was gathered and only data routinely collected as part of the quality improvement work was used.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.