West Moreton Maternity Services Collaborative

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Initiative Type
Model of Care
Status
Deliver
Added
Last updated

Summary

The West Moreton Hospital and Health Service collaborative maternity model is a dynamic process of respectful communication, trust and compliance with standardised pathways that allow health professionals to provide safe, effective woman-centred care. Collaborating professionals trust and acknowledge each other, use careful and sensitive communication, and follow agreed processes for interdisciplinary shared best practice.

This project was developed and driven by skills learnt during the Manage 4 Improvement program: a six-month integrated leadership and management program designed to build the confidence and capabilities of clinicians to support improvements in health service delivery.

Key dates
Jul 2017
Nov 2018
Implementation sites
West Moreton Midwifery Services.
Partnerships
West Moreton public and private obstetricians and midwives.

Aim

To implement a maternity model of care that promotes collaboration across the service, integrating evidence based practice.

Benefits

  • Promotes a collaborative model of service delivery where midwives, medical officers, general practitioners and specialist obstetricians work together as a multidisciplinary team to provide care that is safe, evidenced based and patient centred. 
  • Recognises birth as a normal physiological event for many women and families, and identifies risks of pregnancy, labour and birth.
  • Is woman-centred and ensures the woman can make informed choices about all elements of care, but also recognises the responsibility the woman has for decisions she makes outside the clinician’s recommendations.
  • Clearly identifies roles and accountabilities of team members and endorses a just culture of accountability, safety and respect.
  • Acknowledges that Queensland does not offer a publicly funded homebirth program and therefore West Moreton Hospital and Health Service (WMHHS) maternity services cannot support home birth as an appropriate place for birth.

Background

The National Maternity Plan (2011) sets out the Federal Government’s vision for maternity services that 'Maternity care will be woman-centred, reflecting the needs of each woman within a safe and sustainable quality system. All Australian women will have access to high-quality, evidence-based, culturally competent maternity care in a range of settings close to where they live'.

The Australian College of Midwives (ACM) Guidelines are used throughout Australia by midwives and health services providers in both private and public sectors as an effective guide to safe collaborative maternity care. The midwife is responsible for constantly assessing, determining and documenting maternal, foetal and neonatal wellbeing. In situations where a problem presents during the care of a woman or her baby, the midwife is guided in making evidence based decisions, and consultation and referral processes, via professional, and hospital policies and guidelines. Women and their babies benefit from a model of care which promotes and encourages close mutual collaboration between the primary care midwife and the obstetric and paediatric teams.

Evaluation and Results

The results of this quality improvement project are evident in the collaboration between clinicians and the expectations for all clinicians to deliver evidenced based practice to approve this model of care and to be willing to implement it.

Lessons Learnt

WMHHS values the contribution all staff members make to provide high quality care to women and their families. It recognises that to do so, staff must feel protected and safe within their working environment. By providing a clearly articulated model of care, WMHHS provides a platform of certainty for all staff to understand and acknowledge their role expectations and to be confident of the protection that compliance to these organisational standards affords.

References

  1. Australian College of Midwives (ACM) 2014, National Midwifery Guidelines for Consultation and Referral, 3rd Edition Issue 2. Online available at: ACM website.
  2. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RANZCOG) 2015, Suitability Criteria for Models of Care and Indications for Referral Within and Between Models of Care. Online available at: RANZCOG website.

Further Reading

  1. Queensland Government Guide to informed decision making in health care. 2nd ed: Queensland Health;2017

Resources

Public resources
West Moreton Hospital and Health Service Maternity Model of Care
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Key contact

Alison Caddick
Midwifery Manager, Women, Children & Family Unit
West Moreton Hospital and Health Service
(07) 3413 7872
Alison.Caddick@health.qld.gov.au

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