Crouse designated Blue Distinction Center+ for Maternity Care

SYRACUSE — Excellus BlueCross BlueShield recently announced that Crouse Hospital has been designated as one of the first hospitals in the U.S, to receive its Blue Distinction Center+ for Maternity Care designation — a new title under the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program.

“The program seeks to help prospective parents find hospitals that deliver quality, affordable maternity care,” according to a news release issued by Crouse. This new Blue Distinction Centers+ for Maternity Care program evaluates hospitals on several quality measures, including the percentage of newborns born under early elective delivery, a continuing concern in the medical community.

“… Crouse is proud to be designated as one of the first hospitals in the nation to receive Excellus BlueCross BlueShield’s Blue Distinction Center+ for Maternity Care designation” Dr. Seth Kronenberg, chief medical officer at Crouse, said in the release. “We thank our entire Kienzle Family Maternity Center team for this special recognition. We’re proud of the highly trained, experienced clinical staff and physicians who care for our mothers and their newborns — nearly 4,000 last year alone.”

Compared with babies born 39 weeks or later, early-term infants face higher risks of infant death and respiratory ailments such as respiratory distress syndrome, pneumonia, and respiratory failure, among other conditions, according to the Crouse release. These babies also have a higher rate of admission to neonatal intensive-care units (NICUs), such as the Baker Regional NICU at Crouse that serves the “sickest and tiniest patients from a 14-county region.”

Hospitals that receive the Blue Distinction Center+ for Maternity Care designation agreed to meet requirements that align with principles that support evidence-based practices of care, as well as having started programs to promote successful breastfeeding, as put forth by the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) through its “Ten Steps of Mother-Friendly Care,” according to the release. The program also evaluates hospitals on overall patient satisfaction, including a willingness to refer the hospital to others.

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