Multidisciplinary Team Partnership to Strengthen Maternal and Neonatal Health and Improve Outcomes: The Kybele Experience

Objective Kybele, Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit humanitarian organization dedicated to improving childbirth conditions worldwide through medical education partnerships. We describe the Kybele multidisciplinary team partnership to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes in Ghana. Information used/Methods Kybele, Inc. has a growing volunteer trainer base currently at 251 participants in five years. Faculty - anesthesiologists, obstetricians, nurses, midwives, neonatologists, internists, biomedical engineers and administrators come from 55 institutions in the US, Canada, UK and Australia. Kybele entered a 5-year agreement in 2007 with the Ghana Health Service to establish Obstetric Centers of Excellence to reduce maternal and neonatal deaths by half. The evolution of Kybele's activities at Ridge Hospital, the flagship tertiary referral hospital of the Ghana Health Service in the Greater Accra Health Region, is described.

Results Twelve areas for improvement were identified by a multidisciplinary Ghanaian-Kybele team, and twelve interventions devised and instituted. Subsequently, there has been an explosion of activities in domains of quality improvement, clinical guideline development, standard operating procedures, teaching and training, advocacy, research and patient centered care. Despite a tripling of deliveries at Ridge Hospital from 2005 – 2009, with no influx of new staff, maternal mortality rates have decreased by 36 % and perinatal mortality rates are nearly halved. Conclusion The rich collaborative, multidisciplinary partnerships forged against the backdrop of a systems improvement philosophy, are responsible for the remarkable achievements of Kybele in Ghana. While much more needs to be done, there is cause for guarded optimism.