What is a Perinatal Risk Assessment?
Ideally, a perinatal risk assessment is performed proactively to assess a hospital or health system's perinatal services to identify risks, opportunities for improvement, and organizational alignment with best practices in obstetric care.
Risk assessments aim to identify and mitigate risk by creating an awareness of existing hazards and risks in the provision of care, therefore allowing organizations to prioritize opportunities for improvement and develop targeted action plans aimed at improving the quality and safety of care provided.
Organizations should consider proactively completing risk assessments yearly.
Focused risk assessments should also be considered at any time, such as:
when a new service is added, or there has been a shift in services,
when there are significant transitions or changes to staffing or,
with new construction or before entirely moving to a new facility or unit.
Risk assessments can also be completed after identifying trends in adverse events or near misses. This allows organizations to assess systems of care, develop action plans to advance patient safety, and build safer care systems.
What PQC Does
Our team of experts works with health care systems, hospitals, birth centers, and OBGYN practices across the nation to assess the obstetric care provided for strengths and opportunities to improve.
Based on our assessment, we create actionable recommendations for improvement that align with evidence-based practice and professional society guidelines.
Recommendations can be prioritized, and strategies can be implemented and translated to measurable improvements in maternal and infant outcomes.