Leveraging Expertise to Improve Safety – Insights and Lessons Learned From Collaborative Applied Human Factors Safety Work in a Maternal Neonatal Care Setting

Collaboration across Canada’s healthcare system is critical to improving safety in the high-risk area of maternal neonatal care. Oak Valley Health (OVH) and the Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC) collaborated on two applied safety projects, leveraging expertise from both organizations. These projects sought to identify opportunities to improve teamwork, communication and workflow across the Childbirth and Children’s Service program at OVH. In Project 1, human factors specialists from HIROC implemented a series of front-line-focused ownership techniques to understand opportunities to improve teamwork and communication to support patient safety across the program. In Project 2, the study team used observations to map nurses’ movement during obstetrical triage and conducted a perceived mental workload assessment of nursing staff in the obstetrical triage area. We discuss the approach and results, as well as lessons learned from this collaborative work that can be shared in other healthcare contexts. Key learnings include insights into project scoping, and leveraging the clinical, human factors and other expertise from multiple organizations to proactively improve safety.