Abstract

Obstetrical services are one of the high-volume services in hospitals in Canada. As such, it is essential that hospital managers have access to timely, high-quality perinatal information on the characteristics of the women using their services, the use of interventions, and health outcomes. Ideally, this information is used as an integral part of a formal continuous quality improvement (CQI) process.
Individual hospitals, mainly teaching hospitals, have developed their own clinical databases to provide perinatal information for research and management purposes. The Eastern Ontario region took a different approach. Under the direction of the Perinatal Partnership Program of Eastern and Southeastern Ontario (PPPESO), the hospitals collaborated on the development of a common database.