Triage issues in an out-of-hospital birth center

✍ Scribed by Patricia M Barnes; Melanie S Dossey

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1999
• Weight: 194 KB
• Volume: 44
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0091-2182
• DOI: 10.1016/s0091-2182(99)00081-6

✦ Synopsis

Effective triage in an out-of-hospital birth center helps low-risk women avoid high-risk care. Background issues include the contributions of evidence-based practice, informed consent, patient education, problem-focused documentation, afterhours access to client data, and the value of intuition. Telephone triage, immediate referral, birth center management, and follow-up with counseling are outlined for common outof-hospital triage problems: first trimester bleeding, nausea and vomiting, second and third trimester bleeding, urinary tract symptoms, decreased fetal movement, contractions Ͻ 37 weeks, rupture of membranes, contractions Ն 37 weeks, and "emergency" delivery.