Heartbeat August 2019

New triage system will lead to
improved care
WOMEN AND CHILD HEALTH
Emergency care within maternity has a new triage system
A new triage system will be introduced
within our maternity department to
ensure mums-to-be receive the right
care according to their clinical needs.
The Birmingham Symptom Specific Obstetric
Triage System (BSOTS) has been developed
by Birmingham Women’s and Children’s
NHS Foundation Trust in partnership
with the University of Birmingham and is
being rolled out to trusts across the West
Midlands.
Our maternity triage team will implement
the programme from next month after
midwives attended a training course to
ensure a full understanding of how it will
work. It will replace the current triage
system, standardising the way emergency
care works for mums-to-be.
Michaelene Cole, Triage Lead Midwife, said:
“Triage systems are designed to ensure the
patient receives the level and quality of care
appropriate to their clinical needs and the
resources available are used most effectively.
“It involves a process of prioritising the order
in which patients receive medical attention on
arrival to the emergency department, guiding
treatment according to clinical need.
“It’s usually undertaken by a midwife and
involves identification of the presenting
problem; undertaking a standardised
physiological assessment including vital signs
and results in a clinical priority being assigned
based on predictors of urgency of treatment
and on-going care.
“The need for a systematic approach to
maternity triage has been highlighted
recently by NICE Guideline for Safe
Midwifery Staffing for maternity
settings. It defined a delay of 30 minutes
or more between presentation and
triage as a ‘red flag event’ to enable
monitoring of appropriate staffing levels
within maternity.
“We want to ensure that we deliver safe
and effective care to our women coming
into our unit for emergency care and by
introducing the BSOTS system, we can
do this.”
Research has found that triage
departments across NHS organisations
have been identified as being less
reliable and without standardised
processes or pathways. They continue to
expand in workload without appropriate
organisational and clinical systems.
Michaelene added: “This is an essential
tool to provide excellent clinical care to
the women who attend City Hospital.”
Messages of positivity for new mums
Girls representing 52nd Birmingham
Guides and Brownies popped into
our maternity unit recently to drop
off ‘messages of positivity’ for new
mums and maternity staff.
Leader, Katherine Aguirre explained:
“As part of the celebrations for Save the
Children's centenary marked this year,
the 100 Challenge is an opportunity to
take part in themed activities around
‘100’, and we are rising to the challenge
by delivering 100 little wooden hearts
that the girls have individually decorated
and wrapped in cellophane with
personal messages.
“We chose City Hospital for our Save
the Children Challenge because we
wanted to spread our joy to patients and
staff, being in hospital is always a mix
of emotions, from tough times to really
joyous times, so we just wanted to put a
smile on people's faces.”
“The girls had a wonderful time
meeting brand new beautiful babies and
spreading their joy about Girl Guiding
and Save the Children's 100 year
anniversary.”
Girl Guides and Brownies share their messages of positivity
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