- Arizona: Banner Health has tapped Hoyt Skabelund to serve as CEO of Sterling Regional MedCenter. Skabelund, who previously served as CEO of Banner Churchill Community Hospital, succeeds Jeff Shelton, who stepped down from the role because of a "personnel matter." In his new role, Skabelund will also oversee hospital operations in the health system's rural communities, including California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, and Wyoming (Journal-Advocate, 5/1).
- New Jersey: Fraternal twins Danielle Grant and Kim Abraham have given birth to baby boys on the same day, just one room apart at Ocean Medical Center in Brick, New Jersey. While the twins said they didn't intentionally get pregnant around the same time, they did opt to induce their pregnancies on the same day, April 28, after their coincidentally matching due dates—April 22—came and went. Grant gave birth to her second child, Roman, at 11:42 a.m. ET, and Abraham, a first-time mother, gave birth to her son, Aaron, at 3:21 p.m. ET (Carino, USA Today, 5/1).
- Tennessee: HCA Holdings CEO Milton Johnson on Tuesday announced the health system has changed its name to HCA Healthcare, one of several rebrandings by the system over the years. The change, approved last week by the system's board of directors, takes effect on May 8. "Our new name is more reflective of our mission and the broad spectrum of care we provide to our communities and the dedication of our caregivers to our patients in our vast network of inpatient and outpatient facilities across our 42 U.S. markets and the U.K.," Johnson said (Ellison, Becker's Hospital Review, 5/3).
9 elements of top perinatal patient safety programs
Perinatal care is a high-volume service, accounting for one-fifth of all hospital stays. Yet it is also highly variable, with significant differences in complication rates for both vaginal and cesarean deliveries between hospitals nationwide.
This toolkit is designed to help hospitals seize the opportunity to strengthen perinatal patient outcomes. It includes best practices and resources collected from organizations that have successfully improved labor and delivery care by reducing clinical variability.