Invested in the Health and Safety of Women and Newborns
Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. The major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University (Brown) for activities unique to women and newborns, Women & Infants is the ninth largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country with nearly 8,400 deliveries per year. In 2009, Women & Infants opened what was at the time the country’s largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit.
Women & Infants (W&I) with Brown offers fellowship programs in gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric and perinatal pathology, gynecologic pathology and cytopathology, breast disease, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It is home to the nation’s only mother-baby perinatal psychiatric partial hospital, as well as the nation’s only fellowship program in obstetric medicine.
In terms of honors and recognition, W&I has been designated as a Breast Center of Excellence from the American College of Radiology; a Center for In Vitro Maturation Excellence by SAGE In Vitro Fertilization; a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence by the National Institutes of Health; a National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers through the American College of Surgeons; and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology, and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Oncology Group and the National Institutes of Health’s Pelvic Floor Disorders Network.
A Proactive Approach
As an institution of such caliber, Women & Infants is devoted to continuous quality and safety improvement. In 2008, the hospital signed on with APS to deliver perinatal content to OB/GYNs in order to ensure physicians were maintaining top-notch performance and staying up to date with the latest trends in critical areas such as Electronic Fetal Monitoring (EFM) and Postpartum Hemorrhage (PPH). In fact, the hospital maintains its cross-specialty “Flex” program for the very purpose of identifying outside resources for risk mitigation and education. W&I grants physicians a 5% discount on insurance premiums for completing the APS content.
After a few years of working with APS, W&I learned of GNOSIS™ for Obstetrics (OB) – a product in development that would transform APS’ offerings to a whole new product category. Intrigued by a tool that would measure clinician performance, generate personalized content, and deliver an analytics dashboard, W&I volunteered as a beta tester of the product, working with APS to design the latest innovation in perinatal safety. James O’Brien, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Brown and practicing clinician at W&I gave his perspective, “I was immediately curious when I heard of APS’ plans for GNOSIS. As a specialty institution devoted to the needs of women and infants, we welcomed the opportunity to collaborate on product development, giving feedback on where and how the tool could be designed for optimal risk identification, learning, and ultimately risk reduction.”
Deploying GNOSIS for OB
GNOSIS was delivered to market in February 2013 and W&I immediately deployed a pilot program. The institution is now rolling out GNOSIS to all OB/GYN physicians and has plans to extend the offering to nurses. Extremely happy with the assessment feature, Jennie Henriques, Risk Management Program Specialist explained, “The Personal Proficiency Module shows us exactly how people are doing and exactly where efforts to improve are needed. The combination of the assessment and the high risk areas of EFM, PPH, and Shoulder Dystocia, ensures that we are identifying and mitigating risk in the most critical areas of obstetrics. The breadth and depth of this tool is unparalleled in the industry.”
