By: Nathan Ross, MD, OB/GYN at Brookwood Medical Center
This month Brookwood Medical Center was excited and honored to be the first hospital in Alabama and the sixth hospital nationwide to receive the Joint Commission Perinatal Certification. As Alabama’s first women’s hospital, Brookwood has continued to push the envelope in providing high quality medical care to both mothers and their newborn infants.
The Joint Commission has recently initiated a program that recognizes hospitals that are committed to achieving integrated, coordinated and patient-centered care for mothers and their newborns. Brookwood saw this as an opportunity to demonstrate the quality work that has been ongoing for years. Members from multiple departments including obstetrics, neonatology, pediatrics, anesthesiology, and our nursing staff worked together to prepare for the onsite review which occurred in October.
Some of the key requirements included:
• Integrated, coordinated patient-centered care that starts with prenatal and continues through postpartum care
• Early identification of high-risk pregnancies and births
• Management of mothers’ and newborns’ risks at a level corresponding to the program’s capabilities
• Available patient education and information about perinatal care services
As one of Alabama’s busiest maternity hospitals, Brookwood feels that this is yet another way to help demonstrate the commitment to quality maternal and neonatal medical care. The team approach that we were able to demonstrate to the Joint Commission was self-evident and the quality of the services and programs was able to shine as well. Our commitment to improve care in the areas of elective inductions, cesarean section rates, and breast feeding rates were at the forefront of the review process. Not to be lost in the maze of numbers and statistics, we were able to share personal stories of success and triumph as well.
Brookwood looks forward to sharing with other hospitals the ways in which we were able to excel and we look forward to providing quality maternal and neonatal care far into the future of an ever changing world of medicine.
Dr. Nathan Ross is a board-certified OB/GYN at Brookwood Medical Center. Learn more about Brookwood women’s services at iChooseB.com .
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