News Seton Adds Air Transport to High-Risk Maternal Program

AUSTIN, TX - (November 3, 2009) - The Seton Family of Hospitals has added a air transport by helicopter to its High-Risk Maternal program. This service is for high- risk pregnant women who have emergency medical complications and need rapid access to Seton's high risk obstetric and neonatal care. University Medical Center Brackenridge, a member of the Seton Family of Hospitals, will pilot this program, and Seton expects to expand it throughout the network in the future. In May 2006, the Seton Family of Hospitals became the first healthcare network in Austin to offer air transport services for critically ill newborns.

University Medical Center Brackenridge's highly skilled maternal transport nurses will accompany an Austin-Travis County EMS STAR Flight team when bringing pregnant women with critical medical conditions to UMC Brackenridge. The addition of air transport means expectant mothers in remote communities with conditions such as preterm labor and preeclampsia will have faster access to the most advanced obstetrics and neonatal care in Central Texas.

"Seton has long been a recognized leader in treating the most complex obstetrics cases," said Elaine Henry, Director of Perinatal Services, UMC Brackenridge. "Now women with high-risk pregnancies will be able to reach our expert physicians and nurses much quicker."

High-Risk Maternal transport nurses at UMC Brackenridge have a minimum of five years experience in high-risk obstetrics. The team has an average of 17 years experience with high-risk Labor & Delivery unit.

Seton's High-Risk Maternal program includes a partnership between Austin-Travis County EMS STAR Flight and Acadian Ambulance Services and demonstrates a commitment to improving access and quality of health care services in Austin and communities throughout Central Texas.

"The Travis County STAR Flight program is looking forward to this new endeavor with the Seton Family of Hospitals," said Jim Allday, RN, BSN, LP, STAR Flight clinical coordinator. "Being able to bring an experienced maternal transport nurse to the side of a high-risk pregnant patient and then rapidly transport that patient and nurse to a Labor and Delivery unit with an associated Level 3 NICU will greatly enhance the safety and positive outcome for these patients and their babies."

UMC Brackenridge is a teaching hospital with board certified OB/GYN faculty. The hospital offers an antepartum unit staffed by specially trained nurses to care for women with high-risk pregnancies and some of the safest, most advanced labor and delivery care available in Central Texas.

In 2007, Seton Family of Hospitals was awarded the Ernest Amory Codman Award, the highest national award given by the Joint Commission for initiatives taken to reduce preventable birth injuries.

In 2009 Seton was awarded the inaugural Maternity Quality Matters Award for its commitment to maternity care that has resulted in significant improvements in its quality through an innovative program to bring the preventable birth trauma rate to zero.