MORE OB: Keeping Patient Safety a Priority

The Women & Children’s Health Program has just celebrated the completion of their fourth year of the MOREOB program. MOREOB – an acronym for Managing Obstetrical Risks Efficiently – isa patient safety and a professional development program that is inclusive of all members of the Alliance’s interdisciplinary obstetrical team; that is, obstetricians, delivering family physicians, midwives and nursing. Through this program, team members have shared access to current obstetrical knowledge and have an expectation to put this new knowledge into practice in the form of skills drills. These skills drills are an important part of the MOREOB program, as rehearsing for emergencies promotes inter-professional collaborative teamwork and communication practices that help the team to respond to true emergencies in an automatic, well co-ordinated fashion. Practicing skills and emergency situations promotes a sense of confidence with care practices, encourages evaluation of the teamwork process and helps to maintain a sense of vigilance to anticipate and mitigate potential safety risks.

The Women & Children’s Health Program continues to demonstrate its commitment to patient safety, professional development and quality patient care as this team enters into its 5th year of the MOREOB program. The goal: to create an environment where on-going education and rehearsal of skills is the expectation of all team members. Communication and teamwork is an efficient and automatic process and where team members and patients work together to create a culture where safety for all is the priority.