Presented By: Larry Veltman, M.D., FACOG
August 2011

The Joint Commission has presented data that show that 72% of perinatal deaths and permanent neurological injuries to neonates have their roots in communication failures between healthcare professionals. There is evidence that better teamwork and teams that have better communications have better outcomes. This presentation introduces a new tool to enhance the ability of professionals who work on labor and delivery units to communicate with each other to improve patient safety, decrease overall liability, foster teamwork, and promote high morale and critical thinking. This tool is called P.U.R.E. Conversations in Obstetrics that stands for purposeful, unambiguous, respectful and effective conversations. How to integrate P.U.R.E. Converations into perinatal care is discussed in detail.

Objectives:

• Learn how and why communication failures in the perinatal area are the root of much of the litigation that occurs in obstetrics.
• Understand why structured and standardized communication is an important strategy for improving teamwork between healthcare professionals in obstetrics.
• Learn about one form of structured communication (P.U.R.E. Conversations in Obstetrics) that will improve the ability for perinatal team members to work together more effectively and more safely in the perinatal unit.