Brookwood Women’s Medical Center awarded Perinatal Care Recertification from The Joint Commission

Brookwood Women’s Medical Center awarded Perinatal Care Recertification from The Joint Commission

The Women’s Medical Center at Brookwood Baptist Medical Center today announced it has earned recertification in Perinatal Care from The Joint Commission by demonstrating continuous compliance with its performance standards. The certification is aimed at improving and maintaining the health of newborns and their mothers.

As the first hospital in Alabama to earn the Perinatal Care Certification in 2015 and currently the only hospital in the state to hold this distinction – in particular within a state that has among the highest infant mortality rates – the Women’s Medical Center at Brookwood Baptist Medical Center demonstrated its efforts to achieve integrated, coordinated, patient-centered care for clinically uncomplicated pregnancies and births. The certification uses standards, guidelines and The Joint Commission’s perinatal care core performance measures for managing and monitoring aspects of perinatal care that are critical to improving and maintaining the health of newborns and their mothers. Among the key requirements include:

• 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

“Perinatal Care Certification recognizes health care organizations committed to fostering continuous quality improvement in patient safety and quality of care,” says Mark Pelletier, RN, MS, chief operating officer, Accreditation and Certification Operations, and chief nursing executive, The Joint Commission. “We commend Brookwood Baptist Medical Center for using certification to reduce variation in its clinical processes and to strengthen its program structure and management framework for newborns and their mothers.”

“We are pleased to recertify in the area of Perinatal Care from The Joint Commission, the premier health care quality improvement and accrediting body in the nation,” added Sande Brewton, MHSA, BSN, RNC-MNN, administrative director, Women’s Services. “By achieving recertification, which involved meeting 252 performance elements, we continue to demonstrate our focus on ongoing quality-improvement processes to improve care for mothers and newborns.”

For more information, please visit The Joint Commission website.