COVINGTON – The New Family Center at St. Tammany Health System’s flagship St. Tammany Parish Hospital has been designated a Blue Distinction Center+ for Maternity Care by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana.
This distinction, part of Blue Cross’ Blue Distinction Specialty Care program, is made in recognition of the high quality and cost effectiveness of care provided by the health system.
The Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity Care program plays a key role in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s National Health Equity Strategy, which is aimed at reducing racial health disparities across the care spectrum and improving patient outcomes for all Americans. To align with this strategy, the Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity Care program raised its quality and measurement standards to recognize higher-quality facilities that have taken action to respond effectively to obstetric emergencies, reduce racial disparities and improve maternal health outcomes.
Based on data from the current designation cycle, St. Tammany Parish Hospital and other facilities designated under the Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity Care program demonstrate higher-quality care compared to non-Blue Distinction Center facilities. This includes overall average rates of 26% fewer episiotomies, 60% fewer elective deliveries and 17% fewer cesarean births – all of which point to healthier outcomes for patients.
BDC+ designated facilities also exhibited an average savings of 21% for maternity care.
The Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity Care program’s selection criteria was devised to close clinical care gaps and reduce inequities that persist throughout the maternal care spectrum. The selection criteria includes components of BCBSA’s Maternal Health Equity Actions, which dismantle the cultural, operational and structural barriers that have created inequities that persist in maternal care.
To be designated under this program, each applicant facility was evaluated on a combination of objective data on patient outcomes as well as the practices implemented to reduce racial disparities and improve maternal health outcomes, such as:
- Using evidence-based best practices to respond effectively to obstetric emergencies.
- Offering unconscious bias training.
- Participating in the regional Perinatal Quality Collaborative.
- Having doula support available on the maternity care team.
- Collecting race, ethnicity and language data.
- Having a program dedicated to quality improvements in maternal care.
- Running drills and simulations to prepare providers to deal with a range of obstetric emergencies.
- Demonstrating health outcomes that exceed the selection criteria from our program’s previous evaluation cycle.
Since 2006, the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program has helped patients find quality specialty care at lower costs in the areas of bariatric surgery, cancer care, cardiac care, cellular immunotherapy, fertility care, gene therapy, knee and hip replacement, maternity care, spine surgery, substance use treatment and recovery, and transplants, while encouraging healthcare professionals to improve the care they deliver.
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About St. Tammany Health System
The heartbeat of its community, St. Tammany Health System cares for patients and families with excellence, compassion and teamwork. It is nationally recognized for quality, safety and service excellence by CareChex, Leapfrog, Healthgrades, Hospital Compare, Women’s Choice and US News & World Report. The health system is home to 281-bed St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District No. 1, three diagnostic centers and 12 medical clinics throughout western St. Tammany Parish. Self-supporting, not-for-profit STHS is AA- rated by Fitch and receives no tax funding. More at StTammany.health.
About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is committed to our mission to improve the health and lives of Louisianians. Founded in New Orleans in 1934, we are a tax-paying nonprofit health insurer with offices in every major region to serve our customers. We have been recognized for the past four years as an honoree of The Civic 50, named by Points of Light as one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the United States. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. We are a private mutual company, owned by our policyholders, with an independent Louisiana Board of Directors and no shareholders. Learn more at www.bcbsla.com.