Additionally, family medicine-only staffed hospitals have stronger nursing-rated safety culture<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter<\/b><\/p>\n
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THURSDAY, Sept. 26, 2024 (HealthDay News) — U.S. birthing hospitals staffed exclusively by family medicine (FM) physicians are more likely to have lower cesarean section rates, according to a study published online in the September\/October issue of the\u00a0Annals of Family Medicine<\/em>.<\/p>\n Emily White VanGompel, M.D., from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and colleagues characterized the effect of the FM presence on unit culture and a key perinatal quality metric in Iowa hospital intrapartum units. The analysis included survey results from 849 Iowa clinicians (physicians, nurses, and midwives) delivering intrapartum care at 39 hospitals participating in a quality improvement initiative to decrease the incidence of cesarean delivery.<\/p>\n The researchers reported that 13 hospitals were FM-only (all rural), 11 OB-only, and 15 hospitals were both. They found that among hospitals with <1,000 annual births, births at FM-only hospitals had an adjusted lower risk for cesarean delivery (adjusted incident rate ratio, 0.66) versus hospitals with both. Nurses reported that at FM-only hospitals, unit norms were significantly more supportive of vaginal birth and had a stronger safety culture.<\/p>\n “Birthing hospitals staffed exclusively by FM physicians were more likely to have lower cesarean rates and stronger nursing-rated safety culture,” the authors write. “Both access and quality of care provide strong arguments for reinforcing the pipeline of FM physicians training in intrapartum care.”<\/p>\n Abstract\/Full Text<\/a><\/p>\n