PRESS RELEASE
CHRISTUS Shreveport-Bossier Health System has achieved the Louisiana Birth Ready Designation from the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative (LaPQC). The Birth Place at CHRISTUS Highland Medical Center is one of 11 facilities to receive the recognition this year.
A Louisiana Birth Ready Designation recognizes CHRISTUS Shreveport-Bossier Health system’s hard work and implementation of best practices through an evaluation process by the LaPQC. It also celebrates improved perinatal health outcomes, which are the result of implementing clinical practices that promote safe, equitable, and dignified birth for all birthing persons in Louisiana.
“It recognizes CHRISTUS Highland Medical Center’s commitment to providing high quality obstetrical care and a safe birth experience for patients in our community,” said Benny Popwell, M.D., Medical Director of Labor and Delivery, CHRISTUS Highland Medical Center.
Hospitals receiving Birth Ready Designation undergo a rigorous application and review process by the LaPQC. To achieve a Birth Ready Designation, CHRISTUS Shreveport-Bossier Health System had to meet five areas of requirement: participation in collaborative learning; health disparity and patient partnership; policies and procedures; structures and education; and outcome and process measures.
“This is such an exciting designation! We are proud to partner with the LaPQC and implement evidenced based research and practices to give the very best care for our mothers and babies,” said Becky Fish, Clinical Director of Labor and Delivery, CHRISTUS Highland Medical Center.
The work of the LaPQC, an initiative of the Department’s Bureau of Family Health, is dedicated to improving perinatal and neonatal outcomes across Louisiana. Birth outcomes in Louisiana have historically been among the worst in the nation: Between 2011 and 2016, about half of all deaths that were associated with a recent birth were preventable. The LaPQC was created to promote the implementation of evidence-based practices to reduce significant factors that contribute to poor birth outcomes. The Collaborative also focuses on promoting health equity and reducing racial and ethnic disparities.
“On behalf of the LaPQC, I want to congratulate all of the birthing facilities who have earned Birth Ready or Birth Ready+ Designation,” said Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell, Medical Director of the LaPQC. “Our list of hospitals that have met the criteria has grown in a short time. This honor has even more significance when you think about the challenges hospitals are facing right now between staff shortages and the ever-changing landscape due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Achieving designation speaks to the resiliency of processes in our hospitals to improve birth outcomes.”
Many of the hospitals awarded designation have been working for years with the LaPQC, implementing evidence-based best practices that address common causes of maternal mortality and morbidity related to hemorrhage and hypertension, as well as practices that promote vaginal birth.
“For these patients, extending the healing ministry of Jesus Christ is part of a birth story that this dedicated team helps write. We have always been committed to providing the best care to our mothers and babies. We now have the designation to show for the hard work,” said Dr. Steen Trawick, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer, CHRISTUS Shreveport-Bossier Health System.