Smooth Transitions: Enhancing Interprofessional Collaboration when Planned Community Births Transfer to Hospital Care

Abstract

In Washington state, planned community births are attended by direct entry licensed midwives (LMs) and certified nurse-midwives (CNMs). The most recently published vital statistics data from 2018 reported that 3.6% of the 84,648 births in Washington occurred at home or in freestanding birthing centers. Approximately 16.2% of planned home birth and birth center clients experience intrapartum or early postpartum transfer to the hospital, while 1.8% of their newborns do. The safety of and satisfaction with these types of referrals depends on multisystem processes performed by a variety of health care professionals. Smooth Transitions is a quality improvement (QI) initiative in Washington state that was developed to enhance interprofessional collaboration between community-based midwives, emergency medical services (EMS), and hospital personnel to improve the quality of hospital transfers from planned community settings. Key interventions to date have included (1) information sharing to dispel misconceptions and provide context regarding community births and midwives; (2) co-creation of transfer guidelines; (3) regularly held interprofessional meetings to review transfers and build relationships; and (4) ongoing review of qualitative feedback that captures the perspectives of all involved. Responses on questionnaires and audits indicate that Smooth Transitions has had a positive impact on provider, staff, and patient experiences with hospital transfers. Future endeavors will include strengthening quantitative data collection processes to measure safety indicators, expanding relationships with EMS, and building a case review process that is legally protected. By engaging representatives of all stakeholder groups and addressing community-to-hospital transfers as a multisystems issue, replication of the Smooth Transitions QI Program nationally could promote increased community midwifery integration by enhancing the referral experience for both patients and caregivers.

Keywords: emergency medical services; freestanding birthing centers; health care quality assurance; home childbirth; interprofessional collaboration; maternity hospitals; midwives; referral and consultation.