Preparedness of health care professionals in preventing maternal mortality at a public health facility in Ghana: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Preparedness of health care professionals for emergency situations is quite indispensable in quality health care; yet, information barely exists on the preparedness of health care professionals for emergency cases in health facilities in Ghana. This study sought to assess the preparedness of health professionals in preventing maternal mortality cases at a public health facility in Ghana. METHODS: This is a qualitative study that used purposive and convenient sampling techniques to recruit 12 health care professionals for in-depth interviews. The interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed and the results presented in themes verbatim. RESULTS: The results show that health care professionals at the hospital were ill-equipped to effectively handle maternal mortality cases in the municipality. As such, inadequate staff size and dearth of essential logistics militate against the preparedness of health care professionals in curbing maternal mortality. CONCLUSIONS: More health care professionals and essential logistics should, therefore, be provided by the Ghana Health Service to augment the existing ones. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1527-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.