Do panels vary when assessing intrapartum adverse events?
INTRODUCTION: A national audit project, Scotland-wide Learning from Intrapartum Critical Events (SLICE), included local assessment of quality of care in cases of perinatal death and neonatal encephalopathy due to intrapartum events. Concerns had been raised about interobserver variation in case assessment by different panels. We therefore studied the extent of agreement and disagreement between assessment panels, and examined the areas in which agreement and disagreement tended to occur. METHODS: 8 cases were randomly selected from all 42 cases identified during a 6-month period (1 January-1 July 2005). Each case was independently reviewed by three panels: the local hospital clinical risk-management group and two specially convened external panels. Panels assessed quality of care in three areas: admission assessment, recognition of incident, and method and timing of delivery. Predefined standards of care were provided for these three areas. Panels were also asked to assess the overall
