by Christina Echegaray
Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received the Tennessee Department of Health’s (TDH) BEST for Babies award, which celebrates hospital efforts to reduce infant death and to give babies and their families the best possible start.
Only four birth centers in Tennessee earned the 2018 BEST for Babies award.
“This is a huge honor for our team and one that we will work hard to maintain. We want all of our babies to have the best possible start and that requires excellent hospital practices to educate and support their families,” said Anna Morad, MD, associate professor of Pediatrics and director of the Newborn Nursery at Vanderbilt.
The BEST award stands for breastfeeding, early elective delivery reduction and safe sleep for babies. Hospitals must meet the following criteria:
- Demonstrate a 5 percent increase in newborn breastfeeding initiation rate from 2015 to 2016, or a minimum breastfeeding initiation rate of 90 percent or higher in 2016.
- Have low rates of elective early delivery at or lower than 5 percent for 2016.
- Must have received Cribs for Kids national safe sleep certification at a minimum of a bronze level, submitted a TDH annual safe sleep hospital policy report for 2016, and demonstrated a minimum of 90 percent of cribs as safe in crib audits in the 2016 report.
