LDH recognizes five additional hospitals achieving Birth Ready Designation

The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) and the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative (LaPQC) are recognizing five additional hospitals that have achieved 2023 Birth Ready Designation for committing to practices of implementing quality improvement to improve birth outcomes for mothers in Louisiana.

These five hospitals join the previously designated birthing facilities. Now, 32 of the state’s 45 hospitals have now been recognized as Birth Ready, with nine facilities being recognized as Birth Ready+.

“It is a privilege to acknowledge these birthing facilities that are working to implement best practices in an equitable way to ensure every woman who gives birth has a safe, equitable, and dignified birth,” said Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell, medical director of the LaPQC. “Through each round of designations, the requirements become more stringent, so to have additional hospitals achieve designation is truly an accomplishment.”

New facilities receiving Birth Ready Designation include:

• Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center
• Ochsner St. Anne Hospital
• Slidell Memorial Hospital
• Thibodaux Regional Health System
• West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital

To achieve designation, facilities met criteria in five dimensions, including implementation of policies and procedures, promoting patient partnership, and addressing health disparities and equity. The nine hospitals that have achieved Birth Ready+ Designation have met a higher threshold of compliance and achievement of the requirements.

All facilities that achieve this designation have done the hard work of improving the consistency and culture of care at their facilities. Facilities receiving this honor went through a rigorous application and review process by the LaPQC Birth Ready designation committee. Applications are reviewed and renewed annually for sustained compliance. Many of the hospitals awarded designation have been working with the LaPQC for years.

The work of the LaPQC, an initiative of the Department’s Bureau of Family Health and the Louisiana Commission on Perinatal Care and Prevention of Infant Mortality, is dedicated to improving perinatal and neonatal outcomes across Louisiana. 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.