Avera Queen of Peace Hospital is proud to be recognized by Wellmark® Blue Cross® and Blue Shield® with a Blue Distinction® Centers (BDC) for Maternity Care designation as part of the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program. To earn this designation, each facility must deliver quality care, safely and effectively.
The Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity Care program plays a key role in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s (BCBSA) National Health Equity Strategy aimed at reducing racial health disparities across the care spectrum and improving patient outcomes for all Americans. To align with this strategy, the Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity Care program enhanced its quality and measurement standards to recognize higher-quality facilities that have taken action to respond effectively to obstetric emergencies, reduce racial disparities, and improve maternal health outcomes.
Based on data from the current designation cycle, facilities designated under the Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity Care program demonstrate higher-quality care compared to non-Blue Distinction Center facilities, with overall average rates of 26 percent lower episiotomies, 60 percent fewer elective deliveries and 17 percent lower cesarean births — all of which point to healthier outcomes for patients.
“I am proud of the physicians and nursing staff for their commitment to providing the Mitchell area with high quality maternal care,” said Dr. Hilary Rockwell, Regional President and CEO of Avera Queen of Peace Hospital. “This designation is confirmation that mothers who come to our hospital can be assured that the services they will receive are among the best in the nation. That does not happen without the dedication of physicians, nurses and support staff working together to achieve the best possible outcomes for patients.”
The Blue Distinction Centers for Maternity Care program’s selection criteria was devised to close clinical care gaps and reduce inequities that persist throughout the maternal care spectrum. The selection criteria includes components of BCBSA’s Maternal Health Equity Actions that dismantle the cultural, operational and structural barriers that create inequities in maternal care.
To be designated under this program, each applicant facility was evaluated on a combination of objective data on patient outcomes as well as the practices implemented to reduce racial disparities and improve maternal health outcomes, such as: using evidence-based best practices to respond effectively to obstetric emergencies; offering unconscious bias training; participating in the regional Perinatal Quality Collaborative; having doula support available on the maternity care team; collecting race, ethnicity and language data; having a program dedicated to quality improvements in maternal care; running drills and simulations to prepare providers are prepared to deal with a range of obstetric emergencies; and demonstrating health outcomes that exceed the selection criteria from our program’s previous evaluation cycle.
Since 2006, the Blue Distinction Specialty Care program has helped patients find low-cost, quality specialty care in the areas of bariatric surgery, cancer care, cardiac care, cellular immunotherapy, fertility care, gene therapy, knee and hip replacement, maternity care, spine surgery, substance use treatment and recovery, and transplants, while encouraging health care professionals to improve the care they deliver.