FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Janice Freedman
(919) 828-1819
The North Carolina Healthy Start Foundation announces first infant safe sleep hospital model of excellence awards
(Raleigh, NC) – The North Carolina Healthy Start Foundation (NCHSF) is proud to announce that five North Carolina hospitals have been awarded its inaugural Infant Safe Sleep Hospital Model of Excellence Award: Carolinas Medical Center (CMC), CMC – Levine's Children’s Hospital, CMC – Pineville, CMC – Union and Gaston Memorial Hospital. The purpose of the award is to recognize hospitals that are proven leaders in infant safe sleep policy, practice and education. Endorsed by the North Carolina Hospital Association and the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force, this award was first announced in July to all hospitals in North Carolina that deliver babies or provide care to children less than one year of age.
"This award not only recognizes hospitals that are already doing exceptional work in the area of infant safe sleep on a voluntary basis," stated Janice Freedman, the
North Carolina Healthy Start Foundation's Executive Director, "it is also encourages other hospitals to increase their commitment to keep North Carolina babies safe in their first year of life."
This award was an extension of the Foundation's hospital-based safe sleep initiative HOPES (Hospital Outreach and Partnership for Education about Safe Sleep), started in 2007. Because research has shown the important role hospital personnel have in shaping new parents’ behavior, HOPES has helped hospital staff to understand that keeping a child healthy and safe goes beyond just time spent in the hospital. It has also helped hospitals implement ways to increase the impact they can have on reducing the risk of SIDS and other infant sleep-related deaths.
To be eligible for the Infant Safe Sleep Model of Excellence Award hospitals must meet criteria in all four areas: Policy, Staff Training and Education, Patient Education and Modeling, and Community Outreach. Fifteen hospitals were nominated and five were recognized. Additionally, eight hospitals that excelled in at least one of these areas, but not all four, were recognized as Infant Safe Sleep Leaders. These hospitals are being encouraged to work with the Foundation so they can become eligible for the Model of Excellence Award in the future. Another round of nominations will be accepted in 2012.
The Foundation also coordinates the statewide, bilingual, Infant Safe Sleep public education campaign (in collaboration with the N.C. Division of Public Health) and created and implemented training now required for N.C. childcare providers working with infants. Data from the North Carolina Center for Health Statistics state that in 2009 there were 1,006 deaths to child under age one. Ninety-eight of these deaths were categorized as SIDS, the leading cause of death for babies between 1 month and 1 year of age.
A list of all hospitals recognized as Models of Excellence or Leaders are listed below.
Models of Excellence
Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, NC
Carolinas Medical Center – Levine’s Children’s Hospital, Charlotte, NC
Carolinas Medical Center – Pineville, Charlotte, NC
Halifax Regional Medical Center, Roanoke Rapids, NC
Heritage Hospital, Tarboro, NC
Lake Norman Regional Hospital, Mooresville, NC
Presbyterian Hospital, Matthews, NC
Presbyterian Hospital, Charlotte, NC
Presbyterian Hospital, Huntersville, NC
Rowan Regional Medical Center, Salisbury, NC
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The N.C. Healthy Start Foundation, a
nonprofit organization established in 1990, conducts
ongoing public education campaigns, advises state and
local policy makers, and provides technical assistance
and professional training focused on reducing infant
death and illness and improving the health of women
and young children in North Carolina.
