Hospital OB department earns BETA award again

For the second year in a row, Sierra View District Hospital has earned the BETA Healthcare Group OB Award of Excellence — an award offered for its quality obstetrical practices and for achieving 100-percent compliance.

“This is a momentous occasion,” said Dennis Coleman, hospital president and CEO, as he welcomed the small crowd gathered at the hospital’s main entry for Wednesday afternoon’s press conference. “The goal of participation is to ensure that healthcare systems, nationally and internationally, perform substantially better in the future than the best it can do in the present.”

In 2008, Sierra View District Hospital made a decision to voluntarily participate in a state-wide obstetrical initiative offered by BETA Healthcare Group — a risk management joint-powers authority for district hospitals in California — in partnership with Advanced Practice Strategies to implement a new initiative created to assist hospitals in attaining the best possible outcome for maternity patients. The participation implements proven clinical quality improvement strategies directed at reducing perinatal harm, Coleman said.

“The goal of the initiative is to promote the best practice in care delivery to moms and babies in BETA’s ‘Quest for Zero’ preventable birth injuries,” said Tom Wander, CEO of BETA.

“More than 35 hospitals were eligible to participate in the program and seven, to date, have received the award of excellence. Sierra View District Hospital is one of five BETA members who have received the award for two consecutive years.”

Heather Gocke, vice president of Risk Management, spoke about some of the highlights of the award and explained that it was all based on the complexities of fetal monitor tracings — which monitor the unborn fetus and the mother’s contractions.

In order to obtain the award, three specific criteria had to be met — using the same common language so that both the practitioners and the nurse were speaking the same language when referring to the tracings; competency in reading the tracings; and asking every clinician to participate in fetal monitor strip reviews four times a year, Gocke said.

“This is the three criteria Sierra View District Hospital met for the second year in a row,” Gocke said and congratulated all present.

“This shows leadership at the front line — leadership at every level,” she said.

More specifically, the voluntary initiative required that participating hospitals demonstrate 100-percent compliance in several key areas.

All physicians and nurses were to be trained on the use of he new National Institute of Child Health and Human Development nomenclature for the interpretation of electronic fetal heart rate monitoring. They also needed to complete an American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists or Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nurses fetal heart rate monitoring interpretation course, which must be taken every two years as a condition of recredentialing or continued employment. And, in addition to specialized training, each participating hospital had to demonstrate a collaboration between physicians and nurses which require ongoing multidisciplinary sessions of fetal strip review.

“Achieving 100-percent compliance is a direct result of the dedication and cooperation of both the nursing staff and physicians here at Sierra View,” said Brenda Welling, director of Risk Management at the hospital. “Their commitment to providing quality care to new mothers and infants born in our community is evident by our recent completion of the Obstetrics Risk.”

Ellen Watson, director of Maternal Child Health, said receiving the award was a wonderful experience.

“We work as a team and strive for continuous improvement in one of life’s most precious moments,” Watson said. “This award is for all of us here who make Sierra View, for the City of Porterville, a better place. This is what we are all here for.”

With 16 employees in her department, which includes labor and delivery, postpartum, the nursery and the new intensive care, level-II nursery, Watson said all have had specialized training in every area, and special training in fetal monitoring and have participated in extra training each month.

“I have a long-term, dedicated, hard-working staff,” Watson said.

Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1045, or eavila@portervillerecorder.com.