St. David’s Georgetown Hospital has recently received new maternal and neonatal care designations!
According to the hospital, St. David’s Georgetown was awarded a level II maternal designation and a level 1 neonatal designation by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
“The purpose of state’s Maternal Levels of Care Designation is to better address complex cases that present a high risk of maternal morbidity or mortality,” Courtney Viala, Director of Women’s Services at St. David’s Georgetown Hospital, told Hello Georgetown. “Each level designates what a facility is able to do in terms of providing care. We are able to provide better care for moms with comorbidities, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and other conditions that can cause complications, because we have a clearly set standard of care expectations, protocols and response times for those moms.”
Viala said the hospital began as a Level 1 Facility, and provided competent, excellent care for pregnant and postpartum patients who are generally healthy, and do not have medical, surgical, obstetrical conditions that would present a significant risk of maternal morbidity or mortality. The new designation means the hospital can now provide a higher level of specialty care for more complex patient cases.
“For example, all of our women’s services nurses also have neonatal resuscitation certification and most have an obstetric nursing board certification specialty,” Viala said. “This means we have nurses who are trained to provide care alongside our obstetricians for patients who are at risk of complications including preeclampsia, hypertension or hemorrhage. Another requirement for moving to a Level II Designation is having lactation services available for mothers, and we now have a wonderful lactation consultant on our team available to provide these services within our hospital.”
The hospital sees about 1,100 births per year, Viala said, and this newest designation is one of the many ways the hospital is meeting the needs of Georgetown.
“Our Level II Maternal Designation is an accomplishment that we take great pride in,” Viala said. “This means that we are able to provide higher complexity care, closer to home, for Georgetown patients. This is one of the many ways that St. David’s Georgetown Hospital is ensuring we continue to grow our services and capabilities to meet the needs of our rapidly growing Georgetown community. ”
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