Perinatal Deaths in Bacchus Marsh Hospital-Samples for Students

Question: Write a report on Perinatal Deaths in Bacchus Marsh Hospital. Answer: Introduction: The case of perinatal baby deaths Bacchus Marsh hospital has been highlighted recently for its absurd number of still born baby deaths over the span of ten years. Proper assessment of the reports provided by Djerriwarrh Health Service, has showed that the death cases could have been avoided with medical assessment. The report aims to address the lack of clinical governance and safety standards regarding this case (Renfrew et al., 2014). . Clinical Governance: It is defined as the structural and systematic standard practices applied to create a custom, which will govern clinical activities. Clinical accountability and responsibility, is a sub-set of clinical governance, involving the supervision and omission of clinical activities, including regulation, auditing, assurance and compliance by boards of directors, governments and professional bodies et cetra. There are five domains which constitute effective clinical governance: Culture and leadership Consumer relationship Workforce Management of Risk Clinical practice A number of articles suggested that out of 96 cases that were referred to AHPRA about the scandal, together with those relating to 13 doctors, 23 midwives and nurses and four other medical staff suggested that two of the five domains were breached. The respondent practitioners and other staffs failed to manage risk suggesting inefficient workforce and erroneous clinical practice. Workforce: Organizations need to ensure that employees should have basic knowledge and appropriate skills to fulfill their duties and perform their respective responsibility within an organization. Processes should be prepared to bear recruitment, training accountability and maintenance of standard clinical trials. The strategies undertaken to ensure maintenance of workforce include: Appropriate qualifications should be a part of health workforce. Planning and scheduling of quality development should be implemented. Staff communication is important to maintain clinical standards. According to a report provided by the perinatal baby deaths in the Bacchus Marsh hospital was a result of misinterpretation of a cardiotocography observation, which is an instrument for observing fetal heartbeat and uterine contraction in a pregnant woman. Investigation lead by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority revealed that five practitioners were failed to provide proper medical assessment and immediate action was taken against them. Clinical Practice: The clinical practice principles contain statements that include standard regulations, strategies, or instructions that assists health practitioners and nurses make decisions about appropriate health service for specific clinical circumstances (Brennan, 2013). The report provided Department of Health and Human Services reflects that practitioners and other medical staff of Bacchus Marsh campus failed to meet standards of National Safety and Quality Health Care. The hospital staff failed to record the incident and provide the report which would draw attention from higher authority. Failure to assess clinical symptoms shows inefficiency of the staff as well as practitioner (Devers et al., 2013).. The time span of increase in number of perinatal death reflects the indifference of the hospital staff. Safety and Quality Guidelines: Management of Health service organizations implement governance systems to consign, check and develop the performance of the organization and correspond to the importance of the patient understanding and quality management for all members of the workforce. Health practitioners and staff members of the workforce contribute to the governance systems(Bismark, 2013). According to a report provided by Dr. Euan Wallace was recruited by the Australian Department of Health and Human Services to examine the situation, and found that several of the perinatal deaths could have been avoided if safety and quality guidelines were followed. His report had several clauses that would breach the safety and quality guidelines. The patients in labor were not treated with precaution and misinterpretation of analytical equipments show that the patient handling staff did not follow the given patient handling standards of the Victorian government. Strategies to avoid Risk Management: The following strategies could have been undertaken to avoid the occurrence of the incidents in Bacchus Marsh hospitals. Credentialing: Itis the process undertaken which establishes the qualifications of licensed medical practioners and staffs and assesses their background and legitimacy (Freud, et al., 2015). The authority of the Bacchus Marsh hospital failed to recruit quality staff, which is evident from Dr. Wallaces report and several other investigative porcediures. Reporting and acting upon near misses and incidents: Health firms have preconceived plan of action when it comes to near miss reporting. Many such incidents occur that might surpass a narrow escape from fatality. Reports of the baby deaths, provided by the Bacchus Marsh hospital coroner show that all the baby deaths were avoidable and not all the cases were completely fatal (Renfrew et al., 2014). The respondent practitioners and nursing staffs failed to react in time. Accreditation and benchmarking: The accreditation of a hospital is measured by the number of successful patient cases. In the case of Bacchus Marsh hospital, the Melton Regional Hospital falls under the same governance of the Djerriwarrh Health Services, but the latter showed improved patient care and quality assurance than Bacchus Marsh Hopsital (Gallagher Mazor 2015). Auditing: It is the procedure that an organization undertakes which conducts inspecting the issues, to implement improvement in any aspect of the organization (Goldacre Heneghan, 2014).. Several investigations and reports provided by the Australian Department of Health and Human Services, show that the hospital authority failed to document any record of the perinatal deaths and tried to contemplate a plan of action. The number of perinatal deaths would not have increased so much if the staff and practitioners reported to the health service providers. Monitoring and responding to complaints: The health departments have enforced several misconducts on the Bacchus Marsh hospital authority. One of those allegations were done because, inspite of the attempts to draw attention of the authority regarding the perinatal deaths, the authorities failed to achknowledge the issue. It was revealed that dozens of families have pursued legal action against Djerriwarrh Health Service, suggesting a multimillion-dollar settlement with the government's insurer is in the works. Conclusion: The perinatal death incidents in Bacchus Marsh hospital is a tragic example of lack of clinical governance and safety and quality standards. The investigative reports showed a number breach of hospital management modules including clinical malpractice, safety and quality issues, inefficiency of leadership and management authority and distressed organizational structure (Hoang, Le Terry (2014). References: Bismark, M. M., Spittal, M. J., Gurrin, L. C., Ward, M., Studdert, D. M. (2013). 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