Length of stay for uncomplicated vaginal birth: a perinatal continuous quality improvement project.

Health care changes continue to challenge providers to reconsider how care is delivered. Shorter lengths of stay for mothers and newborns in California sparked the creation of a continuous quality improvement (CQI) project to reengineer care for women undergoing an uncomplicated vaginal birth. The perinatal service at the tertiary center discussed in the article has a birthrate of approximately 140 per month, about 43% of which are uncomplicated vaginal births. As a result of the CQI project, the length of stay decreased from 1.8 days to 1.4 days with no change in patient satisfaction and quality. The article illustrates the interdisciplinary process of CQI in the perinatal setting.