A new VAHI report will help Victorian health services improve the quality and safety of care provided to women and their babies throughout pregnancy, birth and beyond.
The Maternity and Newborn Safety report is based on five key care indicators developed by Safer Care Victoria in partnership with an expert working group (EWG) made up of senior clinicians, consumers, VAHI and the broader Department of Health.
The five indicators are:
- Apgar score of < 7 in 5 minutes
- Severe fetal growth restriction
- Severe postpartum haemorrhage
- Iatrogenic birth by induction of birth or caesarean section without labour in pre/early term births
- Third- and fourth-degree perineal laceration
Reporting against these indicators will help maternity services better understand their performance across key quality and safety measures, providing greater visibility of potential issues that might be emerging.
Maternity services are encouraged to further investigate their results and consider if any action is needed to improve the quality and safety of care provided to women and their babies in the antenatal, intrapartum and/or postnatal periods.
EWG consumer representatives Maria Bradshaw and Ellie Goss helped develop the indicators, based on their experiences of maternity and newborn care.
“This work is so important and the flow on impact will improve the pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience for families and their babies,” Ms Goss said.
Both representatives praised the organisations involved for including a consumer voice in developing the indicators and the Maternity and Newborn Safety report.
“It has been a privilege to be part of this collaborative as a consumer and be given a voice to support real change in this field,” Ms Bradshaw said.
The new report will be released during July via the VAHI Portal, available to authenticated users in Victorian public health services who are authorised to access the data.
It adds to VAHI’s growing suite of digital reports, allowing users to drill down into the individual indicators most relevant to their health service, as well comparing their performance to previous time periods and similar health services.
The report is initially being released as a six-month pilot between July 2022 and January 2023. VAHI will use feedback from this pilot phase to continue to refine the Maternity and Newborn Safety report. Our intention is to release iterative updates as they become available.
For any questions or feedback regarding the Maternity and Newborn Safety report, please contact Clinical Reporting Manager Dr Melisa Lau at [email protected], or the Health Services Insight branch via portal. [email protected]