Bridging the Gap Between Perinatal Medicine, Risk Management, Education, and the Law

Specializing in perinatal medical legal consulting, risk management, and education

Medical Legal Consulting Practice Specializing in:

  • Birth Injury
    • A birth injury is an impairment of the newborn’s body function or structure related to an adverse event that occurred at birth. The most common types of birth injuries include hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, brachial plexus palsy, subarachnoid, or intracranial hemorrhage, intrauterine fetal death, neonatal death.
  • Maternal Wrongful Death
    • The United States has the highest rate of pregnancy related deaths among developed countries. In 2020, 861 women died of pregnancy related causes in the United States, compared to 754 in 2019. The pregnancy related death rate in 2020 was 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births compared with a rate of 20.1 in 2019.
    • It’s estimated that 50% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.
    • The leading causes of preventable maternal deaths in the U.S. are obstetrical hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, maternal sepsis, and venous thrombotic embolisms
    • Prevention, early recognition, and timely treatment are essential components to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.

Offering Perinatal Risk Management, and Educational Seminars to:

  • Local, regional, and national organizations
  • Hospitals / healthcare systems
  • Insurance companies
  • Attorney practices

Educational Topics:

  • Multidisciplinary Perinatal Team Training with an emphasis on active involvement among representation from all specialties within the perinatal team.  Multidisciplinary participation in team goal setting, identification of process, and/or quality improvement opportunities, root cause analysis, action planning, implementation, and sustainability planning.  Concepts from TeamSTEPPS, and Lewins Change Management Model are integrated in an effort to support multidisciplinary team training.
  • Electronic Fetal Monitoring
    • The objective of fetal monitoring is to minimize the risk of fetal injury due to an interruption of fetal oxygenation. It’s encouraged that organizational goals focus on standardization of clinical practices related to fetal monitoring interpretation and management utilizing The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) definitions. A collaborative approach to clinical practice, based on current evidence-based recommendations is promoted in the in-patient, and out-patient settings.
  • Perinatal Liability and Medical Legal Issues in Medicine, Nursing, and within Hospital Systems
    • Common areas of liability in perinatal practice include fetal heart rate pattern interpretation, communication, and documentation, management of oxytocin, uterine tachysystole, shoulder dystocia, forceps and vacuum assisted deliveries, vaginal birth after cesarean section, neonatal resuscitation at birth, and nurse staffing.
    • Common allegations are considered when recommending risk management strategies, and when providing perinatal education. Incorporation of the most current evidence-based standards of care will serve to reduce the risk of unwarranted allegations of malpractice.
  • Oxytocin Management
    • A common area of liability for obstetrical care providers, nurses, and hospitals. Knowledge of current standards of care specific to oxytocin management is essential. Implementation of organizational staffing guidelines specific to oxytocin management will serve as a risk mitigation strategy.
  • Uterine Activity
    • All members of the labor and delivery team should be able to demonstrate evidence of ongoing training reflective of knowledge specific to uterine tachysystole, and excessive uterine activity. Organizations should have a policy outlining the definition of uterine tachysystole, clinical criteria, and management approaches.

Offering Policy and Procedure Review, and Development

  • Maintaining current perinatal policies, and procedures that are reflective of evidence-based standards of care is a requirement per the American Nurses Association Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice.
  • A multidisciplinary approach to policy and procedure review and development is promoted in an effort to enhance the maintenance, and compliance with mutually agreed upon organizational standards. This multidisciplinary approach will improve patient safety, promote a safe working environment, while mitigating medical legal risks for obstetrical care providers, nurses, and organizations.

Schedule a free strategy meeting: For more information on how Barber Medical Legal Nurse Consulting, LLC can support your medical legal needs, individualized goals, and objectives, schedule a complimentary strategy meeting.