Local Hospitals Named to Maternity Care Honor Roll

Desert Care Network’s Desert Regional Medical Center and JFK Memorial Hospital Named to HCAI’s 2024 Maternity Care Honor Roll

PALM SPRINGS — Two Desert Care Network hospitals – Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs and JFK Memorial Hospital in Indio – were named to the California Department of Health Care Access and Information’s (HCAI) 2024 Maternity Care Honor Roll. The award recognizes California hospitals that met or exceeded performance standards for five key maternal health metrics.

Desert Regional and JFK Memorial are the only hospitals in the Coachella Valley to achieve this distinction in 2024. Desert Regional was named to the Maternity Care Honor Roll for the second year in a row, while JFK Memorial made the honor roll for the first time. Additionally, Desert Regional was among the 25% of the 233 eligible hospitals that met the new maternity care composite measure criteria.

“This recognition, which is based on publicly reported quality data and outcomes, is an objective reflection of the exceptional maternity care we provide at Desert Regional Medical Center,” said Maggie Stutz, MSN, RN, the hospital’s Director of Women, Infants & Children’s Services. “We are committed to making sure our patients and families experience the highest quality of care.”

“We’ve worked very hard for the past two years to really focus on our maternity care quality metrics, and this recognition is a well-deserved affirmation of those efforts,” said Geraldine Samaniego, RN, Director of Maternal Child Services at JFK Memorial. “Our primary goal is to continuously improve the quality of care we provide and make a difference in the lives of the women who chose to have their babies at our hospital.”

The five metrics that HCAI began recognizing in 2024 are C-sections among low-risk, first-time mothers

(also known as NTSV C-sections); surgical site infections after a C-section; vaginal births after a C-section

(VBAC); episiotomies, and early elective deliveries prior to 39 weeks gestational age. Between 2015 and 2023, HCAI only recognized hospitals that met the NTSV C-section performance standard.

According to HCAI, overuse of C-sections can result in higher rates of complications like hemorrhage, transfusions, infection, and blood clots. The surgery also brings risks for babies, including higher rates of infection, respiratory complications, neonatal intensive care unit stays, and lower breastfeeding rates.

Stutz and Samaniego attributed their hospitals’ success in being named to the 2024 Maternity Care Honor Roll to a heightened focus on education and training for nurses and other clinical staff, as well as on closer collaboration with – and increased involvement by – their physicians in the hospitals’ quality and outcomes improvement efforts.

Both hospitals participate in performance improvement initiatives developed by the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC), an organization that collects quality and outcomes data from all California hospitals and works with them to improve maternal mortality and morbidity rates. To be considered for the Maternity Care Honor Roll, hospitals must participate in CMQCC’s Maternal Data Center.

Desert Regional and JFK Memorial also work closely with their physicians on reviewing and improving the hospitals’ maternity health metrics such as C-section rates and outcomes. “This has helped increase involvement by our physicians at JFK Memorial, which in turn has helped us meet our quality improvement goals,” said Samaniego.

Stutz added: “We’re very fortunate at Desert Regional to have physician partners who are extremely collaborative and who share our objectives. Everyone here has the same mission, which sets us up for success.”

In 2024, Desert Regional was the first hospital in the Inland Empire to achieve the new Advanced Certification in Perinatal Care created by the Joint Commission and the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists to improve patient experience and outcomes. Desert Regional also is the only hospital in the Coachella Valley to be designated as Baby Friendly, according to breastfeeding education standards set by the World Health Organization. In addition, the hospital is home to the Coachella Valley’s only Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), which provides the highest level of intensive care for newborns.