Improving maternal update rates within the first hour of NICU admission

Abstract

Background: Timely communication is essential in attaining maternal satisfaction, developing an excellent physician-patient rapport, and increasing trust. This study reports a significant improvement in maternal communication rates through the quality improvement method.

Methods: An educational module was developed, and NICU staff was presented with the slides, followed by a performance questionnaire to demonstrate understanding. The first phase was completed by obtaining feedback from mothers through a questionnaire. The first plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle, carried out for eight weeks looking at the rates of the maternal update provided within an hour of admission of their neonates to the NICU, was followed by the second PDSA cycle, carried out for ten weeks. The improvement was calculated using conventional statistics and a statistical process control chart.

Results: During the first phase of the study, thirty-six percent of the mothers were updated within an hour of admission of their neonates to the NICU. During the first PDSA cycle, we did not notice a special cause variation or process change. A significant shift, eight consecutive points above the mean, was noted on the control chart during PDSA cycle 2. The mean±SD of the weekly update rate increased significantly during PDSA cycle 2 (76.8±11) compared to PDSA cycle 1 (47.5±14), p-value = 0.0002.

Conclusion: We improved the maternal update rates through the educational module following the QI improvement model using the PDSA cycles.

Keywords: Healthcare quality; NICU; PDSA cycle; improvement; maternal; neonatal; patients’ satisfaction.