A modified Delphi method to create a scoring system for assessing team performance during maternal cardiopulmonary...

Area of Science:

• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Emergency Medicine
• Cardiology

Background:

• Maternal cardiopulmonary arrest is a critical, life-threatening obstetric emergency.
• Existing protocols for managing this emergency require standardized tools for effective team response.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a comprehensive checklist of essential tasks for managing maternal cardiopulmonary arrest.
• To establish an objective method for evaluating team performance during maternal cardiopulmonary arrest events.

Main Methods:

• A modified Delphi method was employed, involving multiple rounds of expert task ranking.
• Consensus on task inclusion was defined as 80% exact agreement among experts.

Main Results:

• Three rounds of the Delphi method were necessary to achieve expert consensus.
• The process resulted in a finalized checklist comprising 45 critical tasks.
• Consensus was progressively reached, with tasks identified in Round One (5 tasks), Round Two (25 tasks), and Round Three (29 tasks).

Conclusions:

• The modified Delphi method successfully generated a consensus-based checklist for maternal cardiopulmonary arrest.
• The resulting checklist incorporates a weighted scoring system for objective team performance assessment.