Women and Infant Services Committment to Quality and Safety

Commitment to Quality

When you give birth at a Seton Family of Hospitals birthing center, you and your baby will be cared for by experts who are committed to your health and safety.  Nursing staff and directors from all specialties attend regular meetings to review standards of care, discuss and adopt new practices and set goals. Seton is also involved in a national perinatal innovation group that sets standards for the safest possible care of mothers and infants. Find out what our award-winning care can mean for you and your newborn.

Seton Hospitals Earns Texas Ten Step Nod for Breastfeeding Support

Five Seton Family of Hospitals birthing facilities have been designated 2010 Texas Ten Step sites by the Dept. of State Health Services and Texas Hospital Association for providing optimal breastfeeding support for new mothers. The hospitals that have implemented 10 goals or “steps” to support mothers are Seton Medical Center Austin, Seton Medical Center Williamson, Seton Northwest, Seton Southwest and University Medical Center Brackenridge.

WHAT IS TEXAS TEN STEP?

To acquire the Texas Ten Step designation, sites must promote healthy outcomes for newborns by training all maternity staff and offering them annual updates. Hospital associates must provide moms with resources for continued care after discharge, too.

The objectives of the Texas Ten Step Facility Program are to encourage hospitals to achieve the following goals:

• to have 75 percent of their mothers breastfeeding at discharge
• to support breastfeeding mothers before, during, and after delivery
• to identify breastfeeding resources for mothers after they are discharged

Our Seton hospitals have successfully implemented the ten steps of the program to support breastfeeding mothers.

Seton Hospitals Certified Among the Best to Protect Newborn Babies From Hearing Loss

Seton Northwest Hospital, Seton Southwest Hospital and University Medical Center Brackenridge have been recognized by the State of Texas as among the best in the state for screening newborn babies for hearing loss.  The Texas Department of State Health Services monitors hospital-based hearing screening programs to ensure specific quality benchmarks are met. To be certified, hospitals must screen newborns for hearing loss, refer those who need follow-up testing to audiologists and inform parents and family doctors of hearing screening results. Certified hospitals have demonstrated a commitment to ensuring that those babies born with hearing loss are diagnosed early and channeled to the best resources to get medical and educational attention.

Seton Family of Hospitals Receives National Honor for Safety

Although birth trauma happens infrequently, it is emotionally devastating to families of affected children. The Seton Family of Hospitals’ innovative, perinatal best practice protocols has been recognized nationally for creating one of the safest care environment for moms and newborns.  The Seton Family of Hospitals is a recipient of the Ernest Amory Codman Award for developing and implementing transformational practices in labor and delivery (L&D) aimed at reducing the rate of birth trauma.

First Award for Maternity Quality Matters Goes to Seton Family of Hospitals

Child Birth Connections, a national not-for profit organization working to improve the quality of maternity care, recognized Seton Family of Hospitals’ high level of care for moms and newborns.  Seton has earned the Child Birth Connection’s very first Maternity Quality Matters award for demonstrating excellence in maternity care quality through measurement of performance, incorporation of evidence-based practice, and responsiveness to the needs of childbearing women and their families.