St. Louise Regional Hospital has been named to the State of California’s Patient Safety Honor Roll for demonstrating safety across multiple departments, and to the state’s Maternity Honor Roll for meeting or surpassing a statewide target aimed at reducing caesarean sections.
“We are proud to be on both honor rolls,” said Gloria Dela Merced, St. Louise Regional Hospital executive. “It takes a team effort, and our physicians, nurses and support staff are committed to meeting rigorous performance measures for our patients’ safety.”
The Patient Safety Honor Roll includes information from hospital-acquired infections, adverse patient safety events, sepsis management and patient experience.
These measurements establish shared goals and sense of purpose, and advance improvements, Merced said. St. Louise Regional Hospital was cited for a strong culture of safety, high-quality patient care and the ability to meet the state’s patient safety measures.
The Maternity Honor Roll’s goal is to reduce cesarean rates in California. There are 500,000 births each year in California (one-eighth of all US c-section births) and in the past decade, the c-section birth rate has risen by 50 percent nationwide. Today, one-third of all babies are born via surgery—significantly more than the federal Healthy People 2020 goal of 24.7 percent for low-risk deliveries, according to the state.
Reducing cesarean sections can result in lowering medical complications in first-time mothers, such as incidents of heavy bleeding, blood transfusions, infections, blood clots and longer recovery time compared with vaginal birth. Higher c-section rates carry risks for babies including potential injury during surgery, breathing problems, neonatal intensive care stays and lower breastfeeding rates.
